Rattray Park, a popular amusement center in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region has been locked up by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) for non-payment of tax Friday.  

Although the GRA has not officially spoken to the media, a source disclosed to Joy News that operators of the amusement park did not register to charge patrons Value Added Tax (VAT) on services offered since its inception. 

The new Value Added Tax (VAT) rate of 17.5 percent took effect in Ghana following a presidential assent given the VAT Act 2013 (Act 870) on December 30, 2013, and it's subsequent gazetting the following day.

Under the regime, the standard rate which was 12.5 per cent, moves up to 15 percent, while the National Health Insurance Levy (NHIL) remains at two-and-half percent.

A person who fails to issue a tax invoice as required under section 19 for goods supplied or services rendered commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding c10 million cedis or imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or to both. [As substituted by The Value Added Tax (Amendment) Act, 2002 (Act 629) s.2]

The Park was constructed by the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) in its bid to restore Kumasi as the Garden City of West Africa.

The Park was inaugurated by the President John Dramani Mahama and Asantehene Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II in June 2015. 

The Park was christened Rattray in honour of Captain Robert Sutherland Rattray, a Scottish who was the Assistant Colonial Secretary in the Gold Coast and clerk to the Legislative Assembly of Accra in 1919.

The park boasts of facilities like an artificial lake, a golf cart, WiFi connection, children's playground, a gym and a 6m² dancing fountain which is the first of its kind in the country. There are also other amenities like restaurants and cafeterias.

Joy News' Erastus Asare Donkor who visited the Park saw the entrance padlocked with a yellow tape with the inscription "Keep off, property attached by commissioner IRS" on it. 

According to the reporter, around midday on Friday, all staff of the amusement park and security persons were told by security officers to move out for the park to be closed down.