<<Print>>

Following reports that more than 280 private and public companies have been evading the payment of taxes, government has set up mechanisms to stop the "vampires" from sucking the nation dry. Over a period of seven years, tax evasion by the defaulters has amounted to $367 million. A presidential task force headed by the Chief of Staff, Prosper Douglas Kweku Bani uncovered the alleged massive tax fraud which was perpetrated in bonded warehouses in Accra between 2005 and 2012. Speaking to Okay FM on the matter, Dr. Clement Apaak, a presidential staffer stated that government has given the affected companies up to the end of November 2013 to settle the debt owed to the state. He reveals harsher actions would taken against companies who fail to clear their indebtedness after the deadline. Dr. Apaak explains that the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service had started investigations to identify all the customs officers who were involved in aiding the companies to defraud the state. He stated that the yet to be identified customs officials connived with the companies and allowed them to clear their goods from the bonded warehouses without paying the required amounts to the state. Some of the major companies cited in the report of the task force are United Steel Company Limited, $86,059,463; the Hippo Group of Companies, $48,440,486; Trusty Foods Limited, $20,890,556, and Movelle Company Limited, $20,489,556. Others are Dry Food Processing Company Limited, $8,214,537; Caitec Delta Limited, $7,439,870; Euro Food Ghana Limited, $2,285,603; B5 Plus Limited, $15,519,729, and CCTC Ghana Limited, $10,394,130. State agencies such as the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), $877,329; the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), $2,354,048, and the Ministry of Communications, $1,729,249, have also been implicated in the report. According to Dr. Apaak, government is working towards building one large bonded warehouse instead of scattered warehouses, to ensure transparency. To ensure accountability, he said, a special account would be opened under the Ministry of Finance into which the amounts owed the state would be paid and indicated that the public would be given updates.