GRA apprehends 4 persons for diverting duty free goods

The Ghana Revenue Authority has arrested four people for diverting duty free goods cleared for Paga to Accra, Nungua.

Briefing the media on the development of the arrest, the Commissioner General of GRA, Mr. Emmanuel Kofi Nti said, the vehicle with the registration number, GT 5160-12 was carrying a 3000 thousand cartons of assorted wine made up of 2000 cartons of Don Garcia and 1000 cartons of Simon Sangria meant for Comet Ghana Limited’s duty free shop at Paga on November 6th 2018.

According to him, the Authority picked up intelligence on Friday, November 9th that the goods cleared for Paga were being discharged at Nungua.

“ On Friday 9th November,2018 acting upon intelligence that a consignment of Free Zone goods released for export to Paga the previous day had been diverted and were being discharged at Nungua” he said.

He explained that, Samuel Kwame Agbah of Comet Ghana Limited upon apprehension tried to bribe one of the intelligence team members with GHC2, 000.00 with the promise of giving him more on a later date.

“It was detected that the seal to the goods had been opened with its key and the goods being discharged” Mr. Nti disclosed.

The Commissioner General added that all 39 exportations done by Comet Ghana Limited since September 2018 as per the GCNet system report will be subjected to examination.

“It has always been our suspicion that the regime was being abused and this has confirmed our suspicion” he said.

Mr. Kofi Nti said, the culprits, Samuel Kwame Agbah, Seth Nyarko, John Tetteh and Daniel Owusu are in the custody of the police aiding investigations and the truck with its contents have been detained pending re-examination and proper re-assessment at the GRA headquarters adding that “the Free Zone Operator which is Comet Ghana Limited is yet to report to the Authority”

Mr. Nti said,the value of goods diverted amounts to GHC 139,359.89 which attracts GHC 88,957.47 duty liability.