The Ghana Revenue Authority has announced that the door remains open till September 30, for tax evaders who brought overage, smuggled vehicles using unapproved routes into the country to come forward to benefit from its tax amnesty exercise before it shuts.
The Tax Amnesty Act, which is already in force, is part of plans to improve voluntary tax compliance and open the tax net of the Ghana Revenue Authority. It also presents an opportunity for all taxpayers and potential tax payers who have defaulted to discharge their obligation voluntarily.
For this year, GRA began its tax amnesty exercise on August 1st, 2024, and has earmarked September 30 to end.
Speaking to some members of the Parliamentary Press Corps(PPC) on the sidelines of engagement with PPC at Nungua in Accra, as part of Tax Education Month by GRA, the Supervisor Vehicle Valuation Unit, Customs Head office Accra, Justice Njornan Magah said “So we encouraging people to comply with the tax laws, every year GRA will declare a tax amnesty -so this year is no different, so GRA wants those who have not complied with the tax laws and they are having vehicles in the country whether they came through approved routes using the temporal importation regime which allows for them to come in for 90 days or they smuggled them through unapproved routes into the country, we just want them to come forward saying they have this vehicles, we are not paying tax on it.so we will do the assessment, only the vehicle duty – vat and all that, only the taxes, penalty is waived,so that is what amnesty does.
According to Magah, GRA aims to encourage voluntary compliance with tax laws. However, some people misuse temporary importation privileges, especially ECOWAS members who bring vehicles into Ghana for 90 days but fail to extend their stay or use fictitious documents to avoid proper duty payments.
“Our operations team will inspect such vehicles using diagnostic machines that can detect unpaid duties or tampered chassis numbers. If discrepancies are found, including tampered vehicle details, a 300% penalty on the original duty may be imposed for non-compliance.”
The annual tax amnesty exercise, according to Mr. Magah has proven to be an effective means of raising revenue over time. This success has led to its inclusion in Section 652 of the Revenue Administration Act, which empowers the Commissioner-General to declare amnesty.
Mr. Magah also issued a stern warning that driving unregistered vehicles will result in their detention and possible auction if not claimed within 30 days. He refuted claims that vehicles would be confiscated if their owners come forward during the amnesty period.
He further announced that starting October 1, 2024, officials from the Customs Division of the GRA will embark on nationwide road surveillance to apprehend all uncustomized vehicles.
By Eugene Davis
