By Regina Benneh, GNA
Sunyani Sept. 27, GNA - There has been an improvement in tax stamp compliance on selected products in the Bono, Bono East and Ahafo Regions following an educational effort targeting manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers on the consequences of not complying.
Mr. Francis Dapaah, a Principal Revenue Officer, Special Revenue Mobilization Task Force Unit of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Accra stated in an interview with the media, after the Tax Force had embarked on Tax Stamp Affixation compliance exercise on Thursday in Sunyani.
He said the Team came across “selective fixing” on some products whilst others had also defaulted in the filling of their tax returns.
Mr. Dapaah said the warehouses and shops visited, as part of the third nationwide exercise in the Regions, indicated that traders were now complying with the law, even though, they are yet to achieve 100 per cent compliance.
Among the products inspected by the Team were energy and alcoholic drinks, tobacco products, bottled water and non-alcoholic carbonated beverages.
He advised the general public, particularly those in the manufacturing and wholesale sectors of the designated products, to comply with the law to enable them to do their businesses without any hindrance.
Mr Dapaah said the GRA desires to achieve a 100 per cent compliance and therefore entreated retailers to be diligent by ensuring that products received from manufacturers had the tax stamp.
He said there were lots of counterfeit products in the market, and that, the Task Force had a way of detecting false stamps with scanners and magnifiers and cautioned culprits that they would be prosecuted and convicted for dealing in counterfeit products.
The GRA, he said, had been advising manufacturers to ensure that their products were always fixed with the tax stamp before delivery to wholesalers and retailers.
He said retailers should reject products without tax stamps to compel manufacturers and wholesalers to do “the right thing”.
Mr. George Boateng, also a Principal Revenue Officer said the Commission had the mandate to seize goods of retailers who flouted the Excise Tax Stamp Act, Act 873 (2013), saying that, a trader would pay a fine of 300 per cent on the impounded goods or could be prosecuted and convicted to serve as deterrent to others.
As part of the exercise, the warehouses of Happy “G” Enterprise and Premium Distribution Company in Sunyani were locked for not fixing tax stamps on their products and failing to file tax returns.
GNA
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