The Ghana Revenue Authority’s Excise Unit has seized numerous cartons of malt, vodka, Coca-Cola, and various carbonated beverages.
The market value of these drinks according to the GRA’s valuation amounts to thousands of Ghana Cedis.
The discovery was made in an open market where the products were being sold without the required excise stamp, indicating an attempt to evade tax.
Head of the Excise Unit at GRA, Kwabena Apau announced the seizure and bemoaned the flagrant rates at which people flout the country’s revenue collection laws.
“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 disclosed the GRA’s resolve to enforce the country’s revenue laws 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.”
