GRA Impounds Truck Full of Rasta Malt for Non-Compliance

The Ghana Revenue Authority on Wednesday stopped the offloading of a big truck containing Rasta Malt for failing to put the excise stamp on the products.

The authority ordered the truck driver to park at the custom’s warehouse in Takoradi amidst custom escort and arranged for the tax stamp to be affixed before releasing the products back to their owners at their warehouse on the Apowa-Kejibre Highway.

The seizure formed part of a monitoring exercise being undertaken by the Authority to ensure compliance on the excise stamp.

Mr Emmanuel Spio Abaidoo, the leader of the Special Taskforce on Revenue Mobilisation who came from Accra to conduct the exercise, said the enforcement of the tax stamp act was to protect consumers’ health, increase revenue, and check counterfeit and smuggled goods.

He said the orange stamp was for local commodities, whilst the purple was for imported goods.

The team leader who led personnel of the Authority to Melcom, a departmental store saw most of the goods embossed with the stamp, whilst a few were taken off the shelf for the lack of the stamp.

Mr Spio Abaidoo asked that the right thing be done to avoid falling into the hands of the law.

Most of the shops and companies such as Voltic Ghana, Western Water and Bottling Limited, Adom NSA and Twellium companies had some products having the stamp, whilst a chunk were yet to be embossed.

Mr Abaidoo told the media after the inspection that retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers needed to step up on compliance.

He said the introduction of the stamp was to also certify that the government was aware of the existence of such products and that appropriate or commensurate taxes and duties were being paid.

Meanwhile, at the Adom NSA wholesale centre, it was discovered that the company had evaded tax amounting to millions of Ghanaian cedis spanning from January to November.

The centre was therefore asked to appear before the regional office for the necessary action and sanctions to be applied.