VAT Service closes down companies

Accra, Jan. 27, GNA - The Value Added Tax (VAT) Service has closed down three companies that are indebted to it in various amounts running into hundreds of millions of cedis but one smart company was quickly reopened after it had settled what it owed.

The companies were closed down on Thursday and Friday after the VAT Service undertook what it described as a "distress action" after years of non-payment to collect monies owed it.

On Thursday, the VAT Service closed down Gbewaa Civil Engineering Limited, which owed 223.3 million cedis from January 2004 to August 2005. The Service, therefore, took possession of two of the company's compounds at Sakaman and Labone all located in Accra. A team of officials from the Service led by Mr Kwesi Ackaah, Deputy Head of the Enforcement and Debt Management Unit (EDM), also closed down the offices of Paperpen Systems located at Adentan for a debt of 73.6 million cedis.

The offices of Neizer Distribution Agents were re-opened after its proprietor settled a debt of 30.3 million cedis in full with 10 per cent distress cost for the period June 2002 to March 2005. Mr Ackah said the Service would sustain the action and prosecute recalcitrant traders.

He urged the media to support revenue collection efforts of the Service to collect enough taxes for development.