Ghana To Criminalize Abusive Transfer Pricing

Ghana is considering promulgating laws to criminalize abused of transfer pricing in its petroleum sector, Acting Chief Executive of the Petroleum Commission, Mr. Egbert Faibille, has disclosed.

According to Mr. Faibille, the abuse of transfer pricing in the country’s budding petroleum sector was worrying and there was the need to stem the trend without any delay.

He warned companies engaged in such trade abuse to stop since the country’s petroleum regulatory body- Petroleum Commission- would be swift in taking the necessary sanctions against them.

Mr. Faibille made these pronouncements at the 2017 Local Content Conference and Exhibition held in Takoradi yesterday.

The two-day event is being held under the theme “Developing Competitive Local Service Providers and Personnel in Ghana’s Upstream Petroleum Industry”

“The era of transfer pricing abuse must end”, he warned, maintaining that the Petroleum commission would not hesitate to deal with companies found culpable in such conduct.

 Abusive transfer pricing is when a company transacts business with a related party at a price which is in variance with the internationally-accepted market price in order to push profits offshore and reduce its tax bill.

Currently, Ghana has a Transfer Pricing Unit under the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) which detects and sanctions companies found in transfer mispricing.

The sanctions usually take the form of fines in addition of the retrieval of money deemed excess in the transfer pricing transaction.

But, Mr. Faibille says there is the need for a more punitive measure to serve as a deterrent, hence, the move to criminalize such trade misconduct.

He however conceded that it was a difficult step to take but said the commission would engage all stakeholders involved to make it a reality.

“The commission will make recommendations to parliament and the sector minister on this matter and we will see how it goes”, he said.