Two companies were yesterday closed in Accra by the special revenue mobilisation task force set up by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) for owing taxes for more than two years.
The companies whose entrances were sealed with the tapes and padlocks of the GRA were Margins ID systems, at Osu, whose tax liability from July 3, 2013 to date stood at GH�2,095,387.06 and International Energy Insurance Company (IEI) at Abelenkpe with a tax debt of GH�855,000 since 2008.
At the Aviation Handling Service, Dzorwulu, a cheque for GH�660,000 was issued by the managers of the company after the task force had sealed the entrance and locked it up with its padlocks.
Wisconsin International University College at North Legon, which had an outstanding tax debt of GH�609,000, was spared, following an intervention by the board of directors of the school.
The board promised to pay 50 per cent of the debt by Monday, August 24, 2015.
Debt collection exercise
Speaking to journalists during the special exercise to recover the taxes of the four entities who owed a total of GH�4.5 million, the leader of the special revenue mobilisation task force, Chief Revenue Officer of the Domestic Tax Revenue office of GRA, Mr Theophilus Garskin, said the task force had recovered GH�12.392 million from recalcitrant taxpayers since it was inaugurated on August 3, 2015.
The taxes were collected on the spot after the task force visited 324 delinquent taxpayers as part of a massive debt collection exercise.
Mr Garskin described the recalcitrant taxpayers as companies that failed to comply with the self-assessment regime, the Valued Added Tax law and other tax laws.
He said, however, that since the special task force started its work, some delinquent taxpayers had been rushing to the tax offices in their jurisdiction to pay up, adding that as of June 2015, data at the GRA showed that 8,095 companies were owing in taxes.
Mr Garskin stressed that the objective of the task force was to strengthen the tax collection machinery of the GRA by ensuring full compliance with the provisions of the tax laws, as well as to shore up tax revenue.
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