Ghana News Agency (Awutu Breku) – The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has charged Everyday Tissue Manufacturing Ghana for evading tax and failing to issue the GRA’s value added tax invoice.
The company, located at Kwame Wetei at Awutu Breku in the Central Region, was also charged for using books sponsored by the government for junior and senior high schools, which are strictly not for sale, to produce toilet paper.
Three officials of the company – Ma Fui Jiuming, manager, Ma Mang, sales manager, and Prince Andoh, the company’s interpreter – are assisting the police in investigations. The exercise forms part of an enforcement tour carried out by the GRA Special Revenue Mobilisation Task Force at Awutu Breku to clamp down on tax defaulters.
Briefing the press, Henry Sam, co-ordinator of the GRA Special Revenue Mobilisation Task Force, said the exercise was instigated by the GRA Informant and Counter Intelligence Unit.
“The books, instead of going to the classroom to help students, are rather recycled as raw materials to manufacture toilet rolls even though they are not out of date.”
Calculate liability
The task force did not find any the company kept any tangible records such as books of accounts. This contravenes Section 27 of the Revenue Administration Act, which mandates businesses to keep and maintain proper records.
Sam said the task force had retrieved some of the books as exhibits and confiscated some property owned by the company, including four vehicles covered with the seal of the GRA Commissioner General.
He explained that the vehicles will be valued and then weighed against other records, such as the company’s bank statements and electricity bills, to give the Authority an idea of the cost of assessing the company’s tax liability.
“The Commissioner General of the GRA will use his best judgement in assessing the tax liability and any tax shortfall,” he said.
Sam said the police would handle the criminal aspect of the errant conduct in the destruction of government textbooks, while the Authority dealt with the revenue problem.
“We want genuine investors who will comply with the tax laws and contribute to the growth of the economy, not people who will strip this country of its resources and benefit at the expense of the state and its citizens,” said Sam.
