The Special Operations Unit under the Office of the Chief of Staff has impounded 661 drums of alcohol imported by Top Industries limited for evading tax.
The company is said to have exploited the incentives provided under the Free Zones Act 404 1995 to evade 93,978.62 cedis in taxes.
Speaking to Citi Business News the spokesperson for the Special Operations Unit under the Office of the Chief of Staff Dr. Clement Apaak said, “As a result of intelligence and monitoring we became aware that the company called top industries had imported alcohol in March this year and had not paid tax by virtue of using the free zones system “.
Top Industries limited is reported to have sold the drums of alcohol to a second party, Excellence limited, in whose warehouse “Rima cash and carry” at Odawna in Accra, the drums were impounded.
According to Dr. Apac,”we tracked to locate the quantity of alcohol that you see behind me today”.
The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the police service has taken over the case.
He explains that, “the CID, working with the special operations unit, and the police in collaboration with Customs we were able to apprehend the said company officials and they have since given statements to the police CID, investigations have commenced, they have admitted wrong doing and we will expect that the law will take its course”.
The presidential task force last year revealed that some importers compromised customs officials and cleared goods from bonded warehouses without paying any duties to the state.
More than 280 private and public companies have been cited for in the seven year long corruption scandal 2005-2012.
Some of the major companies cited in the report of the task force are United Steel Company Limited, $86,059,463; the Hippo Group of Companies, $48,440,486; Trusty Foods Limited, $20,890,556, and Movelle Company Limited, $20,489,556. Others are Dry Food Processing Company Limited, $8,214,537; Caitec Delta Limited, $7,439,870; Euro Food Ghana Limited, $2,285,603; B5 Plus Limited, $15,519,729, and CCTC Ghana Limited, $10,394,130. State agencies such as the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), $877,329; the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), $2,354,048, and the Ministry of Communications, $1,729,249, have also been implicated in the report.
Government directed all implicated companies to pay back the monies by the end of last year November.
According to Dr. Clement Apaak, government has retrieved GHC 320 million from some of the companies since the ultimatum was given.
By: Rabiu Alhassan/citifmonline.com/Ghana