Two Chinese nationals, operating packaged fruits processing plant at Kpone in the Greater Accra Region have been arrested for falsifying Value Added Tax (VAT) invoices on their products ostensibly to evade tax.
Their arrest followed a tip-off from the Counter Intelligence Unit under the office of the Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo-Marfo, which led to two of the company’s trucks loaded with the juice packs being impounded on the Tema-Accra Motorway.
Briefing the media yesterday about the activities of the company, Dada Food Company Limited, Henry Sam, Head of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) Tax Compliance Task Force said, the company which has been under surveillance for sometime now was found to be engaged in falsifying number of products sold to evade the right amount to be paid as VAT to the GRA.
He said the two of the invoices used as basis for their arrest indicated that the company issued a VAT Invoice of GH¢11,000 on its original receipt but however changed the amount to GH¢110 on the duplicate while in the second instance also, issued a VAT Invoice of GH¢16,500 only for GH¢165 to register on the duplicate.
Mr Sam said since the duplicate receipts were those used to file for VAT returns, the action of the company ended up depriving the GRA the actual returns of goods sold on the market adding that such actions have become rampant with taxpayers.
He said as a result of the vast differences in the amount entered and the extent of the company’s anomalies in filing VAT returns, the task force accompanied by the media proceeded to the factory premises to reassess all the booklets and also do a comprehensive tax audit of their operations.
At the premises of the company, the task force demanded the paper work on all transactions after which, Mr Sam issued a statement that the documents would be perused thoroughly adding that 100 per cent tax penalty would be slapped on the company if they were found culpable of evading tax.
Meanwhile, the two Chinese nationals according to Mr Sam would soon be arraigned before court soon with the charge of tax evasion, suppression of sales documents and falsifying of documents to mislead public officials.
Mr Sam said the exercise was ongoing since the Central Intelligence Unit has planted people in the markets throughout the country to help fish out people engaged in nefarious activities of their expense of the state.
By Lawrence Markwei
