GRA launches mobile App to authenticate tax stamps

By
Kodjo Adams, GNA

Accra, Aug. 13, GNA –
The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) on Tuesday launched a mobile application
dubbed “Ghana Tax Stamp Authenticator” that helps consumers to detect the
genuineness of products sold in retail shops.

The application
allows the consumers to scan and validate the excise tax stamps affixed on
excisable products such as alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages and tobacco
products.

Mr Emmanuel Kofi
Nti, the Commissioner-General of GRA, speaking at the launch of the application
in Accra, said the Excise Tax Stamp Act, 2013 (Act 873) required that excise
tax stamps shall be affixed on specified excisable products manufactures in
Ghana or imported into the country.

However, the
implementation of the Excise Tax Stamp policy started on January 1, 2018 with
enforcement at the points of entry while point of sale enforcement started on
March 1, 2018.

Mr Nti said the
importance of the tax stamp policy was to enable the Authority monitor the
exact quantities declared by manufacturers and importers for tax purposes.

He explained that
the genuineness of the tax stamp was of prime importance to the Authority,
stressing that the production of any fake tax stamp would defeat the purpose of
the policy.

The
Commissioner-General said to help GRA detect the genuineness of the stamp, the
Authority came up with a device, the Bar Code Scanner at the beginning of the
enforcement of the policy, but the gadgets were only used by the staff of the
Authority.

He said the
Authority developed the application to ensure that the monitoring process of
the device was simplified and easily made available to the general public.

Mr Kwabena Apau Awua
Anto, the Chief Revenue Officer in charge of Excise Unit of GRA, explaining the
installation process, said the public or the consumer needs to have an android
phone with at least 5.0 capacity, visit the play store on the phone menu,
search for Ghana Tax Stamp Authenticator and install the application.

Touching on the
scanning procedure, Mr Anto said the public would need to tap the Ghana Tax
Stamp Authenticator logo on the phone for the splash screen to appear, and tap
the ‘start’ to begin the scanning process.

He said after that,
the mobile camera will turn ‘on’ the scanner mode automatically for the
consumer to point the mobile camera exactly over the tax stamp affixed on the
product.

He said after
scanning the tax stamp code affixed on the product, it displays the required
product information on the android phone, that is whether the product has a
valid or invalid stamp code.

Mr Anto said the
successful scan result displays the product type, product origin HR code,
organization name and metric name with the ‘ok’ button.

He urged consumers
to compare the information on their phones with the scanned product to ensure
they are the same and appealed to the public to report any differences between
the scanned results and scanned products to the GRA for action to be taken.

GNA