Ghana’s revenue authority has intercepted a diesel diversion syndicate accused of evading taxes worth about 2.3 million cedis, officials said on Friday, as part of a wider crackdown on petroleum tax fraud.
The Customs Preventive Unit, working with National Security, impounded 10 trucks carrying some 540,000 litres of diesel after intelligence revealed they were diverted from export routes to avoid customs duties.
“Based on intelligence, the team followed the trucks to the port as they were suspected export goods. However, it was discovered that no vessel had been designated to receive the product,” GRA Commissioner General Anthony Kwasi Sarpong told reporters in Accra.
Investigations later found that the trucks’ tracking devices were deliberately deactivated after loading, allowing operators to divert the fuel “under the cover of darkness” to the Kpone enclave, east of the capital.
Sarpong said the GRA has launched a forensic audit into the operations of the oil marketing companies (OMCs) involved, warning that individuals or entities found culpable will face prosecution.
“This Authority will not tolerate any act that seeks to defraud the state or undermine the integrity of our petroleum export regime,” he said, adding that monitoring and enforcement had been intensified with support from National Security and the National Petroleum Authority (NPA).
The GRA estimates that illegal diversions and tax evasion in the petroleum sector cost Ghana millions of cedis annually in lost revenue — a concern as the government pushes to boost tax collection and strengthen public finances amid ongoing economic recovery efforts.
Source: metrotvonline.com
