The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has conveyed to the public, particularly importers, manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers of the affected excisable goods beginning next week, to embark on the second phase of its enforcement and compliance exercise.
According to the GRA, in this second phase, the enforcement and compliance exercise will involve the complete detention, seizure and imposition of the required 300% penalty of the duties and taxes involved on culprits.
Commissioner-General of GRA, Emmanuel Kofi Nti, who made this announcement on Monday, September 24 at a press briefing explained that GRA has already brought to the attention of the public a series of announcements in both electronic and print media of its intentions to avoid complaints of not being informed of such actions as in the past.
He reiterated that the days of impunity about noncompliance with tax laws are completely over.
The Commissioner-General further conveyed that the public cannot choose and select which one of the tax laws they want to obey.
“All the sanctions enshrined in the law on failure to comply with the affixing of the excise tax stamp will be applied to the letter. I wish to assure the public it has never been and will never be the intention of GRA to embarrass and harass anybody. All that we seek to do is make sure that there is total compliance with the law,” he indicated.
Mr. Nti therefore appealed to the public particularly manufacturers, importers, wholesalers and retailers of the specified excisable goods to operate in accordance with the requirements of Act 873.
To the larger and consuming public, he urged them to adopt the catch phrase “no tax stamp, no purchase”.
Kofi Nti encouraged large scale of manufacturers of ‘sobolo’ and ‘brukina’, which are locally made beverages, to affix the stamps on their products to enhance their sales.
The Excise Tax Stamp is a specially designed digital stamp with security features which will be affixed on specified excisable goods in Ghana whether locally manufactured or imported to show that taxes and duties have been paid or will be paid on them.
The policy is aimed at controlling the importation and local production of excisable goods for revenue purposes, check illicit trading, smuggling and counterfeiting of excisable products.
Story by Mabel Annang
