"We Don't Harass Businesses For Taxes" - GRA

The Assistant Commissioner of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Emelia Assam, has refuted allegations of undue harassment of businesses for tax collection.

In response to concerns raised about possible harassment by GRA officials, the Assistant Commissioner clarified that while the GRA does enforce tax collection to ensure compliance, it does not engage in harassing its clients.

The flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, during a meeting with members of the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday, March 20, accused the GRA of pressuring businesses under the guise of tax collection.

Attributing the situation to the GRA’s practice of setting unrealistic targets for its officers, Dr. Bawumia expressed concerns about over taxation of existing businesses.

However, speaking at the Oxfam Tax Dialogue, the GRA Assistant Commissioner, Emelia Assam, countered these claims, stating unequivocally that the Authority does not engage in harassing businesses for taxes.

“There is no harassment with tax collection…GRA staff don’t go out to harass,” she said.

She clarified that no tax officer of the Authority had been given the authority to harass clients.

She further explained that the GRA deals with compliance issues when clients fail to comply, but does not harass clients.

“No tax officer who has been authorised to go out is expected to harass any client. In the sense that we have some compliance issues that we deal with everyday. One is every tax payer must register, failure to register, we can send you a notification to appear.

“We can lock up your place if you fail to respond to these notifications. We have duties to issue invoices for people who are registered to pay VAT.”