The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has rejected recent allegations made by Kennedy Agyapong, a Member of Parliament for the Assin Central in the Central Region, that the GRA is unfairly looking into two of his enterprises.
Kennedy Agyapong in an interview on Kumasi based Sompa FM said the GRA has deliberately targeted two of his companies (a steel plant project and his existing cold store business) because he is out-spoken and has decided to contest for the flagbearership of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) ahead of the 2024 presidential elections.
“[GRA] can never shut down my business because I’ll battle,” Kennedy Agyapong said.
The GRA in a statement said its employees have just been carrying out their duties in accordance with the World Customs Organization’s regulations to ensure adherence to best practices.
“such exercises are regularly conducted. The purpose of such audits, are to measure and improve compliance whiles fine tuning controls. The factory in question together with other companies were thus audited to check the value of goods imported and their intended use.
in January and February 2023, about thirty (30) of such risk-based activities were carried out on a number of businesses. Furthermore, in the area of enforcement and compliance, GRA carries out invoice invigilation exercises to ascertain Value Added Tax (VAT) paid by VAT registered businesses,”the authority said.
“These exercises entail stationing staff on the premises of VAT registered businesses such as shops, restaurants and manufacturing sites to check the issuance of VAT invoices” the statement further noted.
The Authority called on Mr Kennedy Agyapong, all well-meaning Ghanaians and taxpayers to report any suspicious activities of their staff to them, assuring that their complaints will receive prompt attention.