The Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has confiscated a container loaded with goods suspected to have evaded payment of customs duties. 

Initial examination of the truck revealed one unentered vehicle and five motorbikes.

The goods have been detained pending further investigations. 

Tax evasion includes making false declarations on tax returns, and misrepresentation of trading records. 

Others include misrepresentation of books of accounts thus, declaring less income, profits, or gains than the amounts earned, or overstating deductions. 

In Ghana, tax evasion undermines the government's ability to collect revenue and fund essential public services and infrastructure development.

It also hampers economic growth and development.

The Ghana Revenue Authority on Friday, June 13, confiscated a container of goods around Adeambra, Kumasi. 

Kwame Agyemang Badu, the preventive officer in charge of the Ashanti Regional Customs Division, revealed the perpetrators if found guilty will pay a 300% penalty for duty.

“The suspicion was that duties have not been paid on the goods. Our officers moved to the scene and lo and behold, they found a container loaded on a truck. Upon examination, we realized there was an unentered vehicle and five motorbikes which were also not entered.

“We quickly informed the sector commander who gave instructions that the goods should be detained pending further investigations. If they are found guilty, they will pay a 300% penalty. This is not the first time. It regularly happens. But this time, for a vehicle to be in a container that has not been listed, I think this is the first time it's happened in the Ashanti region,” he said.

Some importers have raised concerns about vicious processes at the custom offices. 

Assistant Commissioner and the Sector Commander Kumasi collection, Vivian Glover, says the exercise forms part of an intensified operation. 

“We are partners in the development of the nation. We are just implementers of policies. We have been mandated to collect revenue. And the importers are our partners. They have to import for us to get a job to do. So there is no way we can deliberately target them. If anything we are encouraging them to comply with the rules to be able to import more to get more revenue for the nation.

“This is a coincidence and not a vindication. After the meeting with them where they told us their concerns that officers have been harassing them and intersecting their containers, it is not that we deliberately do that. We do it upon intelligence. We will intensify our monitoring and examinations. Risk measures have been put in place to facilitate this. Some pass through the green channel which is not subjected to physical examination. So some of them are abusing this opportunity to hide things and invade tax,” she said.