Mr Nathaniel Tetteh addressing the media in Kumasi after the exercise
The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has taken action to distress Hippo Limited for evading tax to the tune of GH¢1.362 billion.
Hippo Limited is a general and haulage transportation company.
Officials of the tax GRA, with support from some security officers, simultaneously carried out the exercise at the Kumasi and Tema premises of the company on December 23, 2019.
Nathaniel Tetteh, Principal Revenue Officer at the Debt Management Compliance and Enforcement Unit of GRA, who led the Kumasi team, said the tax evasion, which was revealed during an audit, covers a period of three years.
He explained that management of Hippo Limited failed to comply with the company’s tax obligation after taken goods out of Custom Bonded Warehouse.
“Hippo Limited imports and keeps the goods at bonded warehouse. The procedure is as and when the company takes goods out of the bonded warehouse it declares what it has taken and pays the relevant duties. But Hippo Limited did not pay and after an audit we realized the tax has accumulated to this GH¢1.362 billion,” he told journalists in Kumasi.
Mr Tetteh disclosed that the team uncovered that Hippo Limited had closed down its Kumasi’s office and warehouse and shifted all its operations to Tema, adding that the distress action was intended to recover monies owned to the GRA.
He stated that some of the companies had failed to honour their tax obligations despite promptings by GRA, hence, the distress action to retrieve such monies owned to the state.
From Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi