The Anti-Revenue Leakage Monitoring Team of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has discovered a deal by some enterprises that collect revenue on behalf of the state and divert the proceeds. The Leader of the team, Mr. Thomas Mills, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra at the weekend that some entrepreneurs had not registered with the-Domestic Tax Revenue Division of the GRA, formerly known as the Valued Added Tax (VAT) Secretariat, but collected the tax and issued out computer-generated invoices to unsuspecting clients. He said some companies indebted to the state also closed down their businesses and relocated and managed to re-register them in order to evade the payment of tax. Mr mills said a one-month exercise conducted by the team saw it visiting 200 hotels and restaurants nation-wide, during which it found out that only 20 of those hotels and restaurants had issued VAT invoices, after which they explained to those clients that getting the invoices would attract extra cost. Mr Mills said some people also under-declared the VAT they collected for the state, adding that all those nefarious activities were done with the connivance of some revenue collectors. He said often, people focused on the Customs Division of the GRA when the issue of tax evasion came into the public domain, adding that there were worse things happening elsewhere. He noted that a syndicate was working at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) that managed to issue genuine road worthy certificates and embossed number plates to uncustomed vehicles. Mr. Mills said those activities made it difficult for the security agencies to trace vehicles involved in crime. He called on the President to overhaul the activities of the authority, since the operations of the syndicate were making that vital state institution a security and a revenue threat. He said all those found culpable in the illegal activities at the DVLA should be arrested and prosecuted. He said the team could not use state resources to chase and arrest uncustomed vehicles, only for some few selfish people to frustrate its mission. “I find it difficult to understand why officials who are supposed to fight revenue malpractice are rather aiding the act,” He said Mr. Mills said the team had declared war against acts inimical to the collection and payment of revenue. “We are going to be tough on negative acts that undermine the collection and payment of revenue due the state, since we have established that some leakages are artificially created to divert state resources,” he added. He said the team would liaise with the Revenue Protection Information Bureau, district assemblies and other stakeholders to conduct door-to-door exercises to check the menace. “We will make sure that any revenue due the state is not diverted and we ask the government to make the punishment of people who deny the country the much needed taxes very tough to serve as deterrent to others,” he said. Source: GNA