Managers of Palace Mall, China Mall And Sneda Arrested For Issuing Fake VAT Invoices

Managers of some notable shopping centres in the Greater Accra region have been grabbed by officers of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) for issuing fake Value Added Tax (VAT) invoices.

The shops include China Mall, Sneda Shopping Centre, Palace Mall and Second Cup Coffee all on the Spintex Road, as well as Shoprite at the Junction Mall in Nungua.

The exercise was undertaken by a joint team from the GRA, and the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service.

In October 2022, the GRA shut down some branches of China Mall over non-compliance with Ghana’s electronic VAT system.

GRA has embarked on a special operation to clamp down on companies defaulting on their tax commitments.

The exercises is part of moves by the GRA to boost revenue mobilisation through enforcing the tax laws.

Speaking to journalists, the Commissioner for Domestic Revenue at the GRA, Edward Gyambrah disclosed that some companies engaged to pilot the electronic VAT system tampered with it and compromised the system.

“Some of these tax payers who are supposed to be hooked on to the Commissioner General’s invoicing system are not fully complying with the directive and we realized that some were issuing invoices outside the system and this is an infraction of the law” he said.

He explained that operations is a continuation of the electronic VAT enrollment system which was introduced by the Authority in the last quarter of 2022.

Meanwhile, Enforcement Manager in charge of Accra at the GRA, Joseph Annan disclosed that all the managers who have been arrested will be made to face the law court.

“We’re expected to begin prosecution on them immediately because they want to take us for granted” he told Joy Business.

The exercise is expected to continue until all the selected shops for the e-VAT system comply with the law.