Free Zone Goods Diversion: 5 persons to be processed for court

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) is set to process five persons arrested for the court, in connection with the diversion of Goods by Free Zones Company Comet Ghana Limited.

The Company sought clearance to export three thousand cartons of assorted wine to the Paga Duty-Free Shop but later diverted the goods.

The incident has led to the loss over Ghc88, 000 to the state and checks by the GRA reveals the firm has carried out about 39 exports since September.

Commissioner of the Customs Division of the GRA. Isaac Crentsil revealed that the owners of the company would eventually come forward, as the staff of the company would also help to trace directors of the company in a bid mete out appropriate sanctions.

He said “from here we are going to book them to court. Because we said that after the amnesty, we are not going to sit down, we are heading towards the court. Everything that we get we will let you know we are heading towards the court.”

Mr Crentsil pleaded with the public to help with nabbing such unscrupulous individuals.

“We need the general public, it’s a shared responsibility. Taxation collection is a shared responsibility, because with the help of intelligence that we were able to have this wonderful arrest and we appeal to the general public that they should give us much information so that we will be able to arrest some of those people who are really disturbing the revenue mobilization,’ he said.

Commissioner General of the GRA Emmanuel Kofi Nti said the authority will, however, intensify moves to ensure it achieves its revenue target for this year.

“I’ve emphasized that it is not business as usual in GRA, this is just an example. Let me take this opportunity to warn the public that GRA is determined to use all legitimate means to achieve the 2018 revenue target and will, therefore, remove all obstacle against this objective.

Consequently, we appeal to the public to lend us their full support through the provision of relevant information as in this case and certainly all tax liabilities,” he pleaded.