White Stone Frozen Foods Limited has not evaded tax, officials of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) have revealed.
The frozen foods giant has been accused by some of its competitors of evading taxes, but investigations reveal that what has been instituted is a Customs Valuation Agreement.
“it is normal that in some cases some big players based on their ability to meet certain requirements are offered such agreements with regards to their obligations. They still honour their tax obligations under an agreement specified under Section 12 of the Customs Act 891,” an official of the GRA said.
A tax law expert also explained that as part of the international customs practices, the Customs Division of GRA could have an agreement with an importer based on the kind of products being imported and the intention of the importer.
“The importer can either go by the general customs procedure or have a special arrangement with the customs divisions of the GRA. One of such arrangements is what is called Advanced Ruling System as found in Section 12 of the Customs Act 891. It is that system that companies such as White Stone having applied for, through the Commissioner General of CEPS and once they meet the requirements set out, they can be offered the agreement by the GRA,” the expert explained.
An official of the White Stone …also dismissed the report as baseless and indicated that the agreement had persisted even in the previous government’s regime. “The old agreement with the GRA expired in December 2016 and was renewed in October 2017. There is nothing political about this,” he stated.
He blamed some saboteurs of the company seeking to run down a growing Ghanaian company.
