GRA cautioned delinquent firms

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has cautioned delinquent companies that it will continue to embark on a rigorous exercise to retrieve all outstanding tax owed.

 

More than 100 corporate entities have been defaulting on Value Added Tax (VAT) owed to the state as at last year.

Mr. Samuel Bentil, Chief Revenue Officer of the GRA said this, when he led a team from the Debt Management and Compliance Enforcement Unit, the Large Taxpayers Office and personnel from the Ghana Police Service which paid unannounced visits to two establishments in Accra.

The exercise, “VAT Distress Action”, was aimed at recovering all outstanding debts owed by customers of the Service.

Databank Ghana Limited and African Automobile both owed a total of GH¢8.23 million in unpaid taxes for over two years.

The GRA team as part of the exercise locked up the premises of African Automobile Limited for owing over GH¢6.5 million for non-payment of VAT for a very long time and several attempts to redeem the money had been fruitless.

Mr. Bentil explained that the company’s failure to pay the outstanding arrears within two weeks would result in an auction of the assets to pay off the debt in line with the GRA Act.

“By virtue of the powers of the Commissioner General Under Section 34(3) of the Value Added Tax Act,1998 and section 136 of Internal Revenue Act,2000, Act 592 the GRA will confiscate assets belonging to the tax defaulters and dispose-off the assets if they fail to pay after 14 days.”

Mr. Bentil said the companies have been indebted to the Authority for far too long, and this called for drastic action after several reminders. 

The Authority will continue to ensure that defaulters become law abiding, he added.

He said some of the companies had consistently failed to pay the monies owed despite numerous reminders and appeals and this had led to the distress action being mounted in line with the Value Added Tax Act.

“The Authority will ensure that they comply with the country’s tax laws and honour their tax obligations promptly,” he said.