By Regina Benneh, GNA
Sunyani, Feb. 22, GNA - The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has advised consumers to avoid the the purchase and consumption of carbonated beverages, tobacco, bottled water and other products that do not have the Excise Tax Stamp (ETS).
Mrs Lydia Asare Anim, a Principal Revenue Officer of the GRA and leader of the Authority’s ETS Policy Enforcement Team, said this during the Team’s regional follow up tour of businesses in the Sunyani Municipality.
It was part of a nationwide exercise by the GRA, she said to the Ghana News Agency adding that the Team was in the region in August 2018 to educate and serve notices to warehouses and shops that were not complying with the ETS Policy.
Mrs Anim urged warehouses and shop owners to apply through the regional office of the GRA to obtain the stamps for all their existing stocks before they are supplied to the market.
The Team seized goods and wares of some of the stores and warehouses they visited for non- compliance whilst others were warned to comply with the policy or be sanctioned accordingly.
The goods and products of some wholesalers who were found fixing the stamps in their warehouses were also seized by the team with the explanation that the tax stamps were supposed to be fixed on the products by the manufactures before selling them out.
Mrs Anim said some of the products were sometimes smuggled from the neighbouring countries without labeling and urged retailers and consumers to watch out and desist from patronising such goods because that contributed to the reduction of government revenue.
She expressed the hope that the sanctions would help to reduce the resistance to the enforcement of the policy.
Some of the warehouses and shops operators said they were ready to comply with the ETS policy to improve on government’s revenue generation for development and entreated other wholesalers and retailers who have not been abiding by the policy to do so.
Some of the shop owners said some of the products without the stamps were old stocks and the process of affixing stamps was delaying supply to the market.
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