The Supreme Court has declared its backing for a provision in the Revenue Administration Act which obliges persons unhappy with a tax assessment by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to pay 30 percent of the tax before challenging it.

In a unanimous decision on Wednesday, a seven-member panel of the Apex court dismissed a suit challenging the legality of the said provision.

Section 42(5)(b) of the Revenue Administration Act, 2016 (Act 915) stipulates that before any objection to a tax decision by the GRA, the person objecting to the tax must pay “all outstanding taxes, including 30 percent of the tax in dispute.”

This ruling affirms the GRA’s mandate to deal with any challenge to its decision for an entity to pay certain taxes unless that entity had first complied with the provision of Section 42(5)(b) of Act 915.