VAT defaulters dragged to court

Accra July 4, GNA - An Accra Circuit court on Friday slapped a fine of five million cedis each on six Value Added Tax (VAT) registered companies who failed to issue VAT invoices to customers. Managers of the companies pleaded guilty to failure to issue VAT invoices. They were Princess Cold Stores, Hardeep Cash and Carry, Ben Duah Enterprise, Sympatex Enterprise, Nankani and Hagan Limited and Davatex Enterprise. The Next Century Company Limited pleaded not guilty. T he court chaired By Mr Emmanuel Ankamah issued a bench warrant for the arrest of managers of Saalmons Enterprise, Odinke Ventures, and Zakkour Trading limited for failing to appear before it. Before imposing the fines, the court noted that some of the companies registered by the VAT sometimes failed to issue invoices and stated that their conviction should send warning signals to other defaulters who would appear before it.

The facts presented by Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Eric Amoako were that between July and August, last year, the VAT Service at Adabraka detected that shop owners who had registered with them to issue invoices were not doing so. As a result, the service with the assistance of the Police mounted an operation to arrest them. The prosecutor said the team visited the accused persons' shops in the Accra metropolis and bought goods and the companies issued their own invoices instead of the VAT invoices as required by law. ASP Amoako said the actions of the companies caused the state to loose various sums of money.