You’ll be arrested if you fail to affix excise tax stamps - GRA warns
From next week, manufacturers, importers, wholesalers and retailers who fail to affix excise tax stamps on excisable goods will be arrested and have their goods seized, the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has warned.
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The law requires excise tax stamps to be affixed on specified excisable goods.
Defaulters of the law will face an imposition of a 300
Briefing journalists in Accra yesterday on plans to roll out strategies to ensure full compliance with the law, the Commissioner-General of the GRA,
Affected products
Under the law, some products manufactured in Ghana, imported products and other goods prescribed by the Minister of Finance which are classified as excisable goods must have the stamps affixed on them before they are sold to the public.
The goods include cigarettes and other tobacco products, alcoholic beverages, whether bottled, canned, contained in kegs for sale or packaged in other forms; non-alcoholic carbonated beverages, whether bottled, canned or packaged in any other form, and bottled water.
Apart from the stamp helping to control the importation and local production of excisable goods for revenue purposes,
He pointed out that it would check illicit trading, smuggling
Act
The Excise Tax Stamp Act was passed by Parliament in December 2013, with the aim of ensuring the affixing of excise tax stamps on specific excisable goods before they are delivered ex-factory, cleared from any port or presented for sale at any commercial level in Ghana.
The enforcement of the Excise Tax Stamp Act started at the ports on January 1, 2018, and at the points of sale on March 1, 2018.
In March 2018, a special task force from the GRA commenced the first phase of an enforcement exercise in Accra, Kumasi
The team also found that some manufacturers, wholesalers
2nd phase
On October 1, 2018,
“All the sanctions enshrined in the law on the failure to comply with the affixing of the stamps will be applied to the letter,” he
When asked about the concerns of manufacturers, importers
Following the introduction of the act, some local manufacturers claimed the implementation of the Tax Stamp Policy had the potential of collapsing local manufacturing companies.
In February 2018, the Food and Beverages Association of Ghana (FBAG) threatened to withdraw all locally manufactured products from the market if the government went ahead with the implementation of the Tax Stamp Policy.
The Executive Secretary of the FBAG,