The Ghana Revenue Authority has launched a mobile application named “Ghana Tax Stamp Authenticator” to help consumers to detect the genuineness of tax stamps on products sold in retail shops.
The application launched on Tuesday enables consumers to scan and verify the excise tax stamps affixed on excisable products such as alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages and tobacco products.
Speaking at the launch of the app, Emmanuel Kofi Nti, the Commissioner-General of GRA said the Excise Tax Stamp Act, 2013 (Act 873) required that excise tax stamps shall be affixed on specified excisable products manufactures in Ghana or imported into the country.
He stated that the implementation of the Excise Tax Stamp policy started on January 1, 2018 with enforcement at the points of entry while point of sale enforcement started on March 1, 2018.
The Commissioner-General stated that to help GRA detect the genuineness of the stamp, the Authority came up with a device, the Bar Code Scanner at the beginning of the enforcement of the policy, but the gadgets were only used by the staff of the Authority.
He said the Authority developed the application to ensure that the monitoring process of the device was simplified and easily made available to the public.
Kwabena Apau Awua Anto, the Chief Revenue Officer in charge of Excise Unit of GRA, explaining the installation process, said the public or the consumer needs to have an android phone visit the play store and download Ghana Tax Stamp Authenticator.