The Movement for Truth and Accountability has blown the cover off some 20 companies it believes are under close scrutiny by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) and Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) for tax evasion.
According to the Movement, the list of companies being released was just a fraction of about 1,200 companies (local and foreign) that were found to have indulged in alleged criminal practices such as money laundering, under-invoicing, and tax evasion.
The Convener for the Movement, Mr Joseph Bediako, at a press conference on Friday, May 6, 2021, said although the list he was releasing was as small as an atom, the amount lost in revenue to the country was very huge.
Even though the Convener disclosed the names of the said companies at the press conference, The Chronicle has decided to shelve them in the mean time.
He said the Movement wrote to the FIC in December 4, 2020 to inquire about the activities of the said companies, to which the FIC responded in 10 days under the signature of the Chief Executive Officer, Mr Kwaku Dua, that the “subjects already exist in our database, and the matter is receiving the necessary attention.”
On the contrary, Mr Bediako described the “necessary attention” as a lukewarm attempt at handing the issues, since the country was in dire need of funds for development, and yet the investigative bodies were not doing enough to help.
Some of the amounts he quoted to have been lost in revenue are US$15,733,954.00, US$19,925,255.00, US$32,732,347.00, and US$34,595, 671.00 among others.
He said after an earlier press conference on the subject, the GRA issued a statement to the effect that it had indicated about 2,000 companies, however, the Authority had failed woefully to indicate how far they had reached with investigations to recover the monies.
“We are reliably informed that some individuals are allegedly being compromised, and other information received we would not want to put in public for now. What we want them to know is that we know their every move, and will expose them till the right thing is done for the state to recover these monies,” he warned.
Mr Bediako said the Movement had further gathered that some foreign companies were being left off the hook, but promised that they would continue to follow events with eagle eyes, and same would be reported to the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.
He said the Movement was an anti-corruption organisation that seeks to expose rot in society, as well as ensure that revenues that leaked through were checked to enable the country to develop at a desirable pace.
“Our priority is to see [that] Ghana recoups every penny deprived the state, and will see to it that happens,” he added.
The post Anti-corruption group fingers 20 companies for dodging taxes appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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