Shop owners urges to use GRA stamp app to verify excise tax compliance

Shop owners who sell alcoholic and sugar-sweetened beverages have been urged to comply with the use of the GRA stamp authenticator app to ensure compliance with the Excise Duty Amendment Act 1108 of 2023.

Customers are also advised to download the app to authenticate whether the stamp affixed on products is the required stamp, in order to avoid buying fake products or products with incorrect stamps.

Mary Yayra Kpogo, Director of the Alcohol Policy Alliance – Ghana (GhanAPA), a health advocacy coalition, gave the advice when she led a team to undertake spot checks of excise tax stamps on alcoholic and sugar-sweetened beverages in some shops in Accra.

They used the GRA stamp authenticator app to check the eligibility of the stamps and embarked on an education campaign for shop owners and customers to ensure the use of the app.

She said the objective of the campaign by GhanAPA was to ensure that people who sell alcoholic and sugar-sweetened beverages comply with the Excise Duty Amendment Act 1108 of 2023 to avoid confiscation of their products.

It was also aimed at enforcing the use of tax stamps to prevent fake products on the market and reduce consumption of products that are key contributing factors to non-communicable diseases among consumers.

Kpogo, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said during their visits to some shops they observed that some excise stamps were wrongly affixed to different products, while some had no stamps on them.

She said the wrongly affixed stamps and others had been reported to the Ghana Revenue Authority Excise Tax Unit for seizure.

She said GhanAPA was assisting the GRA to raise revenue by enforcing the use of excise tax stamps to support the government’s development agenda and the delivery of healthcare to citizens.