The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has cautioned all shopping malls and manufacturers of drinks to voluntarily comply with the affixing of the Excise Tax Stamp to avoid any confrontation with officials of GRA.
A Principal Revenue Officer at GRA and leader of the Task Force, Mr Nelson Bright Atsu, who gave the advice, said a new monitoring device called Ghana Tax Stamp Authenticator was being used to determine the authenticity of the tax stamp fixed on drinks.
He said this when the Task Force and the media visited some selected shopping malls and stores in the metropolis to check the authenticity of the tax stamps.
He said the media and the general public would be given the opportunity to use the monitoring device on their phones as well as the techniques to adopt to detect the authenticity of the products they buy and consume.
Mr Atsu cautioned that the stamp must be used for what it was given for, because the mobile app would be able to inform the user whether the stamp was the right one for the product.
He said, if the mobile app showed that the tax stamp was fake, all the drinks with those stamps would be seized and a seizure notice given to the owner.
Mr Atsu appealed to the media to use their outfit to disseminate the information to all manufacturers and dealers in alcoholic beverages in particular, to adhere strictly to the information on tax stamp in order not to fall into trouble.
The Takoradi Sector Commander of the Customs Division of GRA, Mr Francis Tanlongo, said voluntary compliance by all business owners was what GRA was asking for.
He said GRA was not interested in the seizure of items or walking into shopping malls with guns, so the media should be their collaborators to disseminate the news about the tax stamp.
The launch of the Ghana Tax Stamp Authenticator is in accordance with the Excise Tax Stamp Act 2013 (Act 873) which was implemented in January 2018 and enforced on March 1 in Parliament.
FROM PETER GBAMBILA, TAKORADI
