[ 2017-10-05 ]

GRA impounds 100 vehicles over duty evasion, readies to do more
The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has confiscated
about 100 vehicles across the country for
non-payment of customs duties, with the promise to
do more.

GRA Commissioner-General, Emmanuel Kofi Nti said
the presence of the vehicles in the country is
illegal because the necessary permits were not
procured.

At a news conference in Accra Thursday, the GRA
boss said the owners of the vehicles have violated
Section (55) sub-section (1) of the Customs Act
(Act 891).

He noted the law mandates persons who import
vehicles into the country to pay import duties on
them, a failure of which amounts to a breach.

Mr Nti said the Authority will vigorously
intensify its surveillance exercise to seize all
vehicles whose owners have evaded tax payment.

Statistics show that the number of vehicles on
Ghana’s roads have shot up from one million in
2001 to more than 1.5 million in 2015.

But the GRA believes most of these vehicles do not
have the appropriate documentations because they
were smuggled into the country through unapproved
routes.

GRA Director of Communications, Kwesi Ansah told
Evans Mensah on Top Story many Ghanaians and
foreigners have taken advantage of the 90-day
ECOWAS Protocol to evade tax payment.

He said these people bring in their vehicles and
instead of paying customs duties after the 90
days, they try to shortchange the system.

Mr Ansah was emphatic: “All that GRA is asking
you to do is that after the 90 days if you want
the car to remain in Ghana you will go and
pay.”

A car dealer, George Opoku Boateng confirmed Mr
Ansah's claims, saying some of his colleagues
deliberately bring in vehicles from Nigeria, Togo,
and Benin to take advantage of the system.

He explained instead of sending the vehicles back
to the respective countries at the end of the
three-month ECOWAS Protocol, they end up using
Ghanaian plate illegally.

Mr Boateng believes GRA's action will sanitise the
system and rid Ghana's roads of vehicles that do
not have the necessary permits.

Source - Myjoyonline.com

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