Statesman K.B. Asante has called on government to jail any Customs official found guilty of conniving to swindle the state.

His comments follow an alleged report of a tax fraud involving over 280 private and public companies in connivance with the Customs Service.

A presidential task force uncovered the alleged fraud perpetrated in bonded warehouses in Accra between 2005 and 2012.

Even though the president has given the affected companies up to the end of November 2013 to settle their indebtedness, K.B. Asante speaking on XYZ News said the government should consider stiffer punishments to deter others from repeating the crime.

“We should try and get these people to pay but first and foremost we should try and find out those who signed the document for the goods to be removed from the warehouses without the payment of those duties and deal with them ruthlessly.

“Sometimes we need these things to get things to move”.