Miklin Hotel in Accra yesterday October 30, 2019 swerved a near-shutdown when Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) Taskforce visited the hotel unannounced.
The Hotel, according to the GRA, has evaded tax to a tune of GH¢2.8 million. When the taskforce arrived at the hotel premises to close the facility the managers of Miklin Hotel paid a cheque of GH¢1million to the Ghana Revenue Authority operatives to avert any possible shutdown.
Also, the taskforce locked-up the Intelligent Metering Energy Solutions Limited for defaulting in tax payment to the tune of GH¢6.8 million. The tax liability of the amount is made up of Value Added Tax of GH¢5.8 million, Pay as You Earn tax of GH¢80,000.00 and an interest of GH¢700,000.00 for two years.
However, the office of Excel Courier Service, which owed an amount of GH¢9.958 million, was closed when the GRA officials arrived there to issue the distress warrant to the company.
Speaking to Journalists, the Head of Debt Management, Compliance and Enforcement Unit of GRA, Michael Sefa said the exercise was undertaken after a failed discussions and negotiations with the companies to pay their outstanding taxes to the Authority.
He added that the locked-up company would have to visit the Authority’s head office and settle their debts to avoid further actions.
According to the Head of Debt Management, the GRA has so far collected GH¢3.5 million and expressed the hope that the Authority would collect GH¢1 billion out of the total tax of GH¢2.7 billion owed by the end of December, 2019.
The exercise also forms part of GRA’s comprehensive national tax campaign to encourage more Ghanaians to honour their tax obligations to enable the government to meet its domestic revenue targets, increase social intervention policies and accelerate development across the country.
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The Authority, in September, 2019, launched a taskforce dubbed: “Operation Collect, Name and Shame,” aimed at collecting taxes that were overdue and the names of recalcitrant businesses were published in the media and asked to settle their debts.
