Sophia Akuffo, Chairperson of the COVID-19 National Trust Fund, says the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) will offer tax incentives to all individuals and companies who donate to the trust fund.

The fund set up by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to augment the efforts of government, is targeted at supporting the needy and vulnerable in society, as the country tackles the COVId-19 pandemic.

Sophia Akuffo, the just retired Chief Justice, made the disclosure when she addressed a brief ceremony at the forecourt of the offices of the fund to hand over Personal Protective Equipment (PPE’s) to some selected health institutions and associations in the Greater Accra Region.

“We are also happy to announce that the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has confirmed that tax reliefs will be available to donors who make donations to the COVID-19 National Trust Fund when filing their tax returns. This is subject to fulfilling requirements that the GRA has set out in its recently published guidelines for the implementation of the tax incentives in support of tax payers against the pandemic” Justice Retired Sophia Akuffo said.

The Chairperson of the fund also indicated that so far, the fund has received about fifty million Ghana Cedis (GHc 50,000,000.00), from donors. She noted that the fund has almost completed its internal procurement systems in conformity with the requirements of the Public Procurement Act, which will allow them to begin the utilization of the monies that have been donated to the trust fund thus far.

Justice retired Sophia Akuffo also announced that the fund now has a short code, 887100#, that would allow the citizenry to donate any amount to support the mandate of the trust fund. She appealed to the general public to made their donations to the fund by using the short code.

The institutions and associations who received the items were; the Paediatric Oncology Unit of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Nutrition Rehab Center of the Princess Marie Louise Children’s Hospital and the El Wak Isolation Center of the 37 Military Hospital. The rest are the Nii Odoi Kwao Family from Osu, the Ark Foundation Ghana and the Association of Magistrates and Judges.

By:Isaac Clottey