Three businesses' management personnel were detained by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) on Thursday for failing to generate Value Added Tax (VAT) invoices.

According to the VAT Act of 2013 (Act 870), which requires business owners to pay tax, issue VAT bills to potential customers, and then make statutory payment to the GRA, this is a crime.

These companies are Champions Dishes in Adabraka, Grace has Found Us Depot, and Celeb'y Non Alcoholic and Alcoholic Drinks shop, all of which are situated in Dansoman.

Among the team were officers from the Customs Division the and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

Assessment

The Head of Enforcement at the Accra Central Area of the GRA, Joseph Annan said the authority would do a preemptive assessment on the businesses and recommend a full audit to be conducted and make sure every amount was paid.

Currently, he said the authority was doing nationwide test purchasing to detect all tax defaulters.

“This places that we visited are places that we had already sent our officers to purchase from them and all of them did not issue the VAT invoice and it is an offence under our VAT Act 2013 (Act 870).

"We are handing them over to the police for further investigations but for us as tax administrators, we will assess them and apply all the penalties and the interest that are applicable,” Mr Annan said.