Five billion cedis tax evasion uncovered

Less than three weeks after Mr S.L.A. Hammond took over from Nii Okai as the acting Commissioner of Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) trouble is brewing at the headquarters over arbitrary transfers and allegations of attempts to cover up investigations, 'The Evening News' said.

At the centre of the furore is a purported evasion of 5,283,724,413 cedis by TAJ Investment Limited, Tema, dealers in frozen meat and poultry products.

The Association of Meat Importers and Distributors, somewhere in November, complained to the CEPS and other relevant authorities about a suspected undercover dealings by TAJ in respect of under-invoicing of poultry products and preliminary investigations showed that it procures its products from the United States and Brazil but gets the consignments invoiced in Belgium. Furthermore, values quoted for the importations were found to be far below those quoted for similar importations from the same source.

Following the revelations, the Chief Internal Auditor of CEPS, Mr H.K. Nyaxo, wrote to the Minister of Trade and Industry (MTI) copied to other appropriate quarters on the matter. Another letter on January 26, 2001, to the MTI, stated that "a preliminary assessment of TAJ's imports indicated a revenue shortfall of approximately 5,282,724,413 cedis and that a demand notice has been issued to the effect."

A ban was placed on the clearance of the goods in accordance with related penalties. It was established that out of the total assessed taxed of 8,513,785,783 cedis the company paid only 2,929,561,370 cedis and a deposit of 300,500,000 cedis.

After successfully petitioning the CEPS to grant it a respite, TAJ provided post-dated non-guaranteed cheques to the tune of 5,200,000,000 cedis prompting CEPS to place a lien on 60.00 x 50kg bags of sugar belonging to the company to serve as collateral.

The paper says what appears to be attempts to stall the investigations and swift retrieval of the billions of cedis is the unceremonious transfer of key personalities in the investigations. Some of the transferred officers are said to have refused to leave their posts on suspicion that the move is calculated to "kill" the on-going investigations.

The meat and poultry case is also said to be only the tip of the iceberg as the team of investigators prepare to move on to the company's activities on the importation of rice, sugar into the country.