GRA locks up offices of tax defaulting firm

THE Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) Taskforce has locked up the offices of a smart electricity metres developer, Intelligent Metering and Solutions Limited in East Legon, for defaulting in payment of taxes to the tune of GH¢6.8 million.

The exercise forms part of GRA's comprehensive national tax campaign to encourage more Ghanaians to honour their tax obligations to enable the government to meet its domestic revenue targets, increase social intervention policies and accelerate development across the country.

It saw unannounced visits to the Intelligent Metering and Solutions Limited and Miklin Hotel in Accra to collect outstanding debts they owed the Authority.

At Miklin Hotel, the hospitality firm paid a cheque of GH¢1 million out of the GH¢2.8 million tax default for two years.

Head of Debt Management, Compliance and Enforcement Unit of GRA, Mr Michael Sefa, said the exercise was undertaken after a failed discussions and negotiations with the companies to pay their outstanding taxes to the Authority.

For Intelligent Metering and Solutions Limited, he explained the company has not paid taxes because they are still owed by their suppliers for which reason they have not raised enough money to pay their taxes.

“However the law still gives us the permission that once you have still not paid and if after efforts they don’t pay us, we can come and distress you”.

“Once we distress you, we look forward to see that within a week they come to our office for negotiations, and until we are satisfied we would not allow them entry into their premises” he told the press.

Mr Sefa said the locked-up company is required to visit the Authority's head office and settle their debts to avoid further actions, including auctioning of the company's facilities.

He expressed concern about tax infractions by companies, especially that of VAT and PAYE, which prevented the country from getting the needed revenue for development projects, and urged companies, who had not paid their tax to do so to avoid any embarrassing situation.

The Authority, in September, 2019, launched a taskforce dubbed: “Operation Collect, Name and Shame,” aimed at collecting taxes that were overdue and the names of recalcitrant businesses were published in the media and asked to settle their debts.