By Assistant Commissioner Emelia Assam of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has refuted allegations made by New Patriotic Party flagbearer Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia that businesses are facing undue harassment for taxes.
Dr. Bawumia, in a meeting with members of the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday, March 20, accused the GRA of pressuring businesses under the guise of tax collection.
He attributed this situation to the GRA’s practice of setting unrealistic targets for its officers and expressed concerns about overtaxation of existing businesses.
However, speaking at the Oxfam Tax Dialogue onThursday, GRA Assistant Commissioner Emelia Assam rebutted these claims, asserting unequivocally that the Authority does not engage in harassing businesses for taxes.
“There is no harassment with tax collection…GRA staff don’t go out to harass,” she said.
She clarified that no tax officer of the Authority had been given the authority to harass clients.
She further explained that the GRA deals with compliance issues when clients fail to comply, but does not harass clients.
“No tax officer who has been authorised to go out is expected to harass any client. In the sense that we have some compliance issues that we deal with everyday. One is every tax payer must register, failure to register, we can send you a notification to appear.
“We can lock up your place if you fail to respond to these notifications. We have duties to issue invoices for people who are registered to pay VAT.”
