Acting Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Reverend Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah, has said 400 out of some 2,000 companies reported to have engaged in tax evasion, under-invoicing and money laundering have so far been probed.
This was disclosed by the Commissioner-General in an interview on Thursday, April 8, 2021.
The said 2,000 companies are alleged to have engaged in the aforementioned illegalities by using Import Declaration Forms (IDFs) issued to them by the Ministry of Trade and Industry for the wrong purposes.
IDFs are issued by the Trade Ministry and indicate the type, quantity and cost of goods to aid commercial banks to transfer funds and is also a regulatory requirement for reconciliation with Customs Documents.
The illegal activities of these companies was brought to the attention of the GRA via a statement by a group known as the Movement for Truth and Accountability.
The GRA in response to the statement noted it had setup a multi-agency team with members drawn from the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ministry of Finance, GRA, Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) and the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) to carry out investigations into the issue.
According to the GRA, the team’s initial analysis of data on record from the commercial banks against Customs data for the calendar year 2019 uncovered approximately 10,000 unreconciled documents from over 2,000 companies with funds transferred in the region of $1.8 billion.
Given the volume of transactions involved and the questioning of importers, the following findings were made;
▪ IDFs used to clear the goods were different from IDFs used to obtain foreign exchange.
▪ Quantity of goods imported was less than the values on the IDFs issued (under invoicing)
▪ Single transfer of funds for multiple imports and multiple recipients.
▪ Transfers on behalf of Importers by Forex/Informal Financial Sector Operators
▪ Transfers of funds by bank staff for clients who are not importers.
Speaking in the interview, Rev Ammishaddai Owusu-Ansah, asserted that when investigations are completed, all duties, interests, other taxes and penalties will be recovered from the companies with the appropriate sanctions applied.
Read below details of the GRA’s press release in response to the alleged $1.8 billion tax evasion:
Media Release – Unreconciled Transfers by Fuaad Dodoo on Scribd
