Four corporate institutions in Kumasi have been locked up by the Ghana Revenue Authority for defaulting in their tax obligations to the tone of over 800,000 Ghana cedis.

Affected companies have 14 days to redeem themselves or lose their businesses.

A special revenue mobilization task force is undertaking the operation to recover huge sums of money in unpaid taxes.

Affected institutions include the Angel Group of Companies, Georgia Hotel, Nurom Hotel and Doreenas Enterprise, an auto parts dealer.

Angel Group of Companies owes over Gh540,000 which is made up of corporate tax, direct tax, withholding tax and VAT, covering 2011-2015 period.

Georgia Hotel is said to have defaulted payment of VAT, interest and penalties of over 175,000 Ghana Cedis.

Doreenas Enterprise at Suame-Magazine has accumulated nearly 118,000 Ghana cedis in unpaid taxes from 2001 to-date, while Nurom Hotel owes almost 65,000 Ghana cedis personal income tax.

National Coordinator of the special taskforce, Henry Sam, explains under Section 34 of the VAT Act, Act 546, and Section 136 of the Internal Revenue Act, when a property is sealed, owners have 14 days within which to pay up.

“We have locked the place but it is not an end, the final determination is that we will auction their property if they fail to pay within the 14 days”, he explained.

Mr. Sam says GRA has had to resort to the action because management of the institutions failed to respond to their notices to fulfill their obligations.

The GRA is imploring institutions especially delinquent tax payers to voluntarily comply with tax laws.

About 2.6 million Ghana cedis has been recovered from 46 tax payers in the Ashanti Region since the operation began on September 7.

GRA has a revenue target of 22 billion Ghana cedis for the year.