WE DON’T HARASS BUSINESSES FOR TAX – GRA To Bawumia

Dr. Bawumia voiced worries about the overtaxation of already-existing firms and attributed the situation to the GRA’s practice of setting unreasonable expectations for its officials.

However, GRA Assistant Commissioner Emelia Assam refuted these allegations during her speech at the Oxfam Tax Dialogue on Citi TV on Thursday, emphasizing that the Authority does not harass 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 went on to say that although the GRA does not harass clients, it does deal with compliance issues when clients do not comply.

“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.”