Perseus Ghana Limited, a gold mining company, has lost its $10.2 million tax liability appeal against the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), at the Accra High Court.
The company filed the appeal to challenge GRA’s tax assessment that said it owed the GRA $10.2 million.
In ruling on the case, Justice Justin Kofi Dorgu, said that the appeal filed by Perseus was unsuccessful because the company failed to demonstrate that the Commissioner-General erred in applying the tax laws regarding the tax assessment.
He said “it is clear to me that Perseus Ghana Limited has not been able to discharge this burden that the assumptions of facts made by the Commissioner-General and the interpretation and or application of the tax laws by the Commissioner-General leading to the objection decision were inaccurate and or wrongly applied to make the decision wrong in law.
The Commissioner-General in 2013 and 2019, conducted two tax audits into the business activities of Perseus Ghana Limited.
The GRA issued its report on the first audit in September 2013 to cover the periods of 2010 to 2012.
The said audit report was revised on November 25, 2013, which had no liability against the company.
Rather, the assessment resulted in a refund claim of overpaid Value Added Tax (VAT) amounting to about GH¢43.2 million.
Not satisfied with certain parts of the revised tax report, Perseus Ghana Limited filed an objection in January 2014.
The second tax audit covered the periods of 2010 to 2017.
The GRA in August 2019, invited Perseus Ghana Limited to a meeting to discuss a draft tax audit report on the second tax audit.
In response, the company raised a number of issues regarding the assessment and called for a review.
Both the GRA and the company met in September 2019 to discuss the draft audit report, which led to the issuance of a final audit report that assessed the company to a total tax liability of about $8.72 million.
However, Perseus Ghana Limited, objected to the final draft. The company sought further review and paid $2.5 million, representing 30 per cent of the tax liability in dispute as a condition for the determination of the tax objection.
Perseus Ghana Limited said after several discussions, exchange of correspondence, reconciliation of figures and meetings, GRA issued its objection decision on March 2021, revising the tax liability to about $10.2 million.
Dissatisfied by GRA’s position on royalties to the government and loss of investment under its forward contract on gold sales, the company appealed the tax authority’s objection that revised the total tax liability to $10.2 million.
Perseus filed the appeal to challenge the tax assessment conducted by the GRA, as well as the GRA’s objection that revised the total tax liability to $10.2 million, on the grounds that the GRA erred in applying the tax laws regarding the tax assessment and the objection.
BY MALIK SULLEMANA
