The Commissioner-General of GRA, Anthony Kwasi Sarpong, who disclosed this to the media in Accra yesterday, said the team carried out two operations last Saturday during which several trucks were intercepted with uncustomed goods moved from the port as transit good, but were being diverted into the local market without the payment of the right customs duties.

He said in the first instance, “we had a joint operation led by Custom Division of GRA and National Security.”

“We intercepted and impounded four trucks in a warehouse in Tema carrying diverted goods, which is actually cooking oil.

We intercepted 9,000 jerry cans of cooking oil.”

He said the import duties on the goods were approximatively GH¢1.9 million.

Mr Sarpong said the items were falsely declared as transit goods using Burkina Faso as their destination, but in reality they were being diverted into a warehouse in the Tema enclave.

“It will interest you to know that transit goods do not attract payment of duties that is why we believe these goods were falsely declared as such,” he stated.

The Commissioner-General, who was flanked by other commissioners of the GRA during the briefing, added that the team also noted that the tracking devices affixed on the trucks to monitor their movement through Ghana to their destinations were tampered with, suggesting real intentions to evade the payment of duties and divert the goods.

Similarly, Mr Sarpong said the team undertook enforcement actions at the Aflao collection enclave where multiple trucks suspected of carrying uncustomed goods were intercepted.

The intercepted goods, he mentioned, included rice, sugar, tomato paste, beverages, textiles and clothes, which he indicated, were either misclassified or undervalued to evade the payment of the right duties.

Mr Sarpong said the estimated duties on those goods were GH¢1.7 million.

Operations

“So, if you take a look at these two operations alone, through the vigilance of the Custom Division  of the GRA in collaboration with National Security and the Military, we were able to prevent revenue loss of GH¢3.6 million and, therefore, protecting the national purse,” he stated.

Mr Sarpong added that all the items had been confiscated and were currently under the control of GRA.

The GRA Commissioner-General said the authority was taking all the actions to realise the revenue through sales and put them in the coffers of the state.

Furthermore, Mr Sarpong said the law empowered the GRA to take action against the owners whose trucks were used to perpetrate the nefarious activities and gave an  assurance that the authority would surcharge them with appropriate amounts for using their assets or vehicles to facilitate movements that could have led to loss of revenue to the state.

Success

The Commissioner-General said GRA would continue to pursue individuals involved in smuggling activities, protect the borders against unauthorised movements and actively identify and close multiple illegal routes used for evading duty payment.

He also assured  the public, the business community and stakeholders that GRA would pursue its mandate of border protection as well as revenue collection relentlessly.

Mr Sarpong said the authority would not accept any attempt to circumvent its systems and processes and, therefore, called on businesses which were genuinely complying with their tax obligations to continue to do so.

He, however, pointed out that “We will apply all necessary enforcement measures to curtail activities of individuals and businesses which do not comply with the law, particularly those engaging in smuggling.”

He also urged all stakeholders, especially partners of the authority, the media and the public, to work with GRA by sharing any information or evidence relating to smuggling or tax evasion.

“To encourage public cooperation, we have at GRA an informant awards scheme.

Under the scheme, individuals or organisations providing credible actionable information that lead to tax recovery, receive monetary awards in accordance with the informant policy,” he stated.

Mr Sarpong said GRA would protect the identities of informants and when the taxes were recovered “You will receive your share through the awards scheme policy.”