Customs Seize 183 Vehicles In Ashanti

The Ashanti Regional Command of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has confiscated 183 uncustomed vehicles this year. Most of the vehicles were in the possession of people who had bought them from the original owners. Mr Isaac Kofi Toffah, the Ashanti Regional Sector Commander of the Customs Division of the GRA, who announced this at a day�s sensitisation workshop organised by the authority for media practitioners in the region in Kumasi last Tuesday, explained that the original owners of such vehicles deliberately evaded taxes on the vehicles. Such persons, he said, then sold the vehicles to unsuspecting individuals. He said other schemes employed by some of the unscrupulous vehicle dealers included changing the chassis numbers to outwit custom officials, adding that this does not work because custom officials have a way of determining the original chassis numbers. Mr Toffah advised prospective vehicle buyers to always contact the Customs division of the GRA for the proper verification of vehicles, before paying for them. Police/Military Mr Toffah said some personnel of the security agencies, including the police had been arrested for having in their possession, uncustomed vehicles. He commended the Ashanti Regional Police Commander, DCOP Nathan Kofi Boakye, for his support in bringing such personnel to book. Recently, Mr Boakye mounted an operation and arrested vehicles using DV number plates. Payment to informants Mr Toffah said, to encourage people to report importers who had either smuggled in goods or evaded taxes, the GRA had instituted a system where informants were paid 25 per cent of the total value of the tax evaded if their information led to the arrest of such nation wreckers. He said the only fiat was that no informant would be paid anything above GH�25, 000 of the total amount involved.