Popular Kumasi restaurant to be prosecuted for evading VAT

Kumasi (Ashanti) - Owners of Chopsticks, a popular restaurant in Kumasi, are to be put before court for not operating with receipts issued by the VAT Service.

A joint statement issued and signed by Mr. Samuel Tweneboa-Kodua, Ashanti Regional Head of VAT Service and Mr. Samuel Sarpong, Zonal Head, Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in Kumasi, on Wednesday, said papers for the prosecution was being prepared.

The statement said a joint monitoring exercise recently conducted by the SFO and VAT Service showed that waiters at the restaurant, in connivance with the manager, issue unauthorised receipts to its customers.

It said this means that the tax collected by Chopsticks did not go to the VAT Service but to the culprits.

The statement said late last year, when Mr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Minister of Education and Chairman of the VAT Oversight Committee, paid a working visit to Kumasi he expressed concern about the non-co-operation of some VAT registered traders in the collection of the tax.

This, the statement said, led to the intensification of the monitoring exercise by the SFO and the VAT Service during which it was detected that some restaurants and nightclubs were issuing different receipts to their customers.

The statement, therefore, warned all business houses in the region, which are flouting the VAT Law, to be on the look out.

It advised customers to insist on VAT receipts when they pay for goods and services from commercial concerns, which charge VAT.