The Excise Unit of the Ghana Revenue Authority has confiscated multiple cartons of malt, vodka, Coca-Cola, and other fizzy beverages.
According to the GRA, the market value of these drinks is thousands of Ghana Cedis.
The articles were discovered in an open market without the requisite excise stamp, indicating an effort to avoid tax.
Kwabena Apau, GRA’s Excise Unit Head, announced the seizure and criticised the outrageous rates at which people violate the country’s tax collection regulations.
“We have intercepted bottled water, carbonated soft drinks, beer such as Heineken, cigarettes etc. and we expect that those products would have been fixed with stamps either manufactured locally or imported and we have noticed that most people are now flouting the law.”
He also stated the GRA’s determination to implement the country’s revenue rules in order to collect the taxes that are currently leaking.
“These products, particularly the imported ones are coming in without the stamps which means that no taxes have been paid on them and this is what we need to stop as you know, GRA has the mandate to collect taxes and so all the measures that we have to take including the tax stamp policy that is to enhance revenue collection has to be enforced and that is what we are doing.”
