The Member of Parliament for Dormaa East, Paul Apraku Twum Barimah , has revealed that the only way by which government can recover the huge Ghc 650 million debts of petroleum taxes from the recalcitrant oil marketing companies is through sanctions and thus called on Parliament to assist government and the Ghana revenue authority in this endeavour.
He called on the Parliamentary Select Committee on Mines and Energy to assist government in ensuring that these OMCs pay the petroleum taxes. This, he said could be done by hauling them before the committee to answer questions and provide way forward as to how they would be s paying their debts to the country.
He noted that government needs a lot of money to undertake developmental projects such as roads, schools, hospitals among others and taxes are key elements or drivers for development.
Paul Twum Barimah further noted that closure of OMCs centres of operation, seizure of their assets and prosecution of their managers and directors would also pile pressure on them to settle their debts to government
The Auditor General of Ghana in its 2021 report uncovered a high level rot among the OMCs
A report released by the Auditor General’s Department in 2020 made similar allegations of about 28 Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) failing to pay GH₵226,942,904.00 taxes on petroleum products they lifted from the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) between July 2018 to December 2019.
The report said these OMCs failed to comply with Section 104 of the Customs Act 2015 (Act 891).
The report blamed the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) for failing to collect tax revenue, apply measures and sanction the defaulting OMCs.
“Included in this tax irregularity was GH¢33,675,044 due from ten oil marketing companies who failed to pay taxes on petroleum products lifted at TOR between November 2016 and November 2017.”It recommended to the Commissioner of the Customs Division to recover those monies without any further delays but not much has been done since, as the problem keeps
“Over the past few years, the fight against tax evasion, In Ghana has become high on the agenda of the President , Nana Akufo Addo This has been motivated by a deepening belief that good quality governance is essential for sustained economic development.” The MP was thus surprised that the GRA has been struggling to develop mechanisms that discourage tax evaders and reduce tax evasion. He therefore called on the Ghana Revenue Authority to sit up and do the needful by collecting the taxes to help government develop the country”, he added.
By Kwabena Adu Koranteng
