GRA commends traders in Hohoe for using tax stamp

The Ghana Revenue Authority has taken its tax stamp inspection exercise to Hohoe in the Volta region and commended the traders for using tax stamp.

The exercise was to ensure that all excisable goods such as carbonated drinks, alcoholic beverages, bottled water and tobacco products on the market have the tax stamp affixed on them.

This is to prevent counterfeiting, smuggling and ensure that goods consumed by the public were of good quality.

Madam Jennifer Yawa Dzeble, Principal Revenue Officer, GRA, in charge of the Volta Regional Taskforce described the exercise as very successful, saying, most shops visited had the stamp affixed on their products.

“When we came in October last year, the story was not as good as we see now, which means that our education is yielding results, because now, the retailers and the wholesalers understand their responsibility to reject products without the tax stamp and for us to enter a shop to see everything stamped, is positive results", she stated.

Madam Dzeble said it was the responsibility of the manufacturers to affix the tax stamps on the products before distributing them to wholesalers and the retailers.

She asked wholesalers and retailers to be diligent in accepting products from their suppliers by ensuring that products in boxes were opened and checked for tax stamps.

Madam Dzeble said it was the duty of wholesalers and retailers to reject products without the tax stamps to avoid seizure by the Authority.

During the exercise, some products were found to be randomly stamped which Madam Dzeble described as “very wrong", saying, “the stamp is supposed to be on each of them".

Some products that do not have the tax stamp affixed on them or with counterfeit stamps were seized by the taskforce.

Madam Dzeble said the Authority would investigate those products with fake stamps and punish the perpetrators.