The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has disclosed that companies in Ghana owe the state some GHS 1 billion in taxes.

Chief Revenue Officer at GRA, John Yaw Boabeng, said a massive debt collection exercise has begun.

He said over the last two months, defaulting companies have had their edifices locked up.

“Eight companies have been locked up so far,” he said.

Mr Boabeng adds that “GHS30 billion out of the GHS45 billion target for the year 2019 has been collected as of September ending and measures are in place to collect the remaining GHC 15 billion cedis by the close of the year”.

He made the revelations on Adom FM’s Burning Issues on October 30, 2019.

According to GRA, the informal sector forms about 70% of the taxpaying population but only 20% are paying currently is a hindrance to the target of the Authority.

 The “good news”, he adds, however, is that, “the bigger institutions have come forward for a payment plan as allowed by the constitution” to defray their debts.

He explains the variations in duration for the settlement of debts based on the capacity and size of the firm in question.

“The Commissioner-General can give up to 12 months to bigger firms depending on the amount owed and up to 4 months can be given to smaller firms”, he told host, Akua Boakyewaa Yiadom.

Earlier in the day, some companies who have defaulted were visited whilst some had their premises locked up.

Intelligence Metering and Energy Solutions was locked up for owing GHS 6.8 million being an accumulated debt from 2015.

Also, Miklin Hotel was nearly locked for owing GHC 2.8 million between 2017 and 2019. However, the hotel management issued a cheque of GHS 1 million to the Debt Management and Compliance Unit of the Authority when they visited.

Speaking on some of the things that have increased the debt stock of some companies, Mr. Boabeng said “some of them don’t calculate their tax percentage well until our [GRA] officers go to do the correct calculations as well as poor tax education which the Authority has taken steps to enlighten the citizenry on.”

He urged Ghanaians to aid them to collect the taxes for development and encouraged those in both the formal and informal sectors to adopt the voluntary compliance approach instead of defaulting payment.

”If you haven’t made any arrangement with the Authority in defraying outstanding debts, it is at your own peril so I’ll urge all those who are owing to come and pay," he advised.