GRA Impounds Coca Cola Products without Tax Stamp

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has impounded some trucks belonging to the Coca Cola Company Limited.

The trucks, according to GRA, contained products which had no tax stamps.

This occurred yesterday at the Company’s Spintex office, during the Authority’s nationwide exercise on the compliance of the excise tax stamp.

In an interview on Accra based FM station, Class FM, the leader of the Compliance team, Mr. Spio Abaidoo said “…we have spotted some products in there that will be moving out but they don’t have them [tax stamps]. So, we know that the violation is already in place.”

The Excise Tax Stamp Act requires Tax Stamp to be affixed on specified excisable goods manufactured in the country, imported into the country and other goods prescribed by the Minister of Finance.

After GRA’s public education effort to raise the awareness of the public on the excise tax, the Company continued to distribute products without tax stamps.

According to Mr. Abaidoo, the team noted several Companies had flouted the deadline for compliance, hence their decision to stop the bottling Company from distributing products which has no tax stamps.

“After seizing it, we will leave it with management to take it up but as far as the team is here, our mandate is to make sure that the products that are going out for sale are affixed [with tax stamps]. If they are not affixed, we are stopping it to make sure they do,” he said.

He further assured that the team would put in place strict measures to prevent products without tax stamps from entering the market.

The team is scheduled to also visit factories of Kasapreko Company Limited at Kpone and Bel-Aqua Mineral Water in Tema.

By: Emmanuel Yeboah Britwum