The Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has destroyed millions of tobacco products seized from Pulmakom and Tamale in the Upper East and Northern Regions, respectively.
This was in collaboration with the military and other security agencies.
The products were impounded upon illegal entry into Ghana and evading of taxes.
Citi News reports dozens of tobacco boxes, which were being stored in a warehouse in Pulmakom were confiscated due to tax evasion charges.
The Northern and North East Region Commander of the Customs Division, Georgina Lamisi Tibanye, disclosed that intelligence was gathered from British-American Tobacco on September 5th, 2023.
This she said led to the identification of a warehouse in the Upper East Region.
She revealed due to unsafe conditions and the risk of potential attacks, some of the products are still at the warehouse, pending further action.
“We’re dealing with illicit cigarettes which were arrested from Pulmakom in the Upper East Region. We got an intel message on September 5, 2023. There was a warehouse where illicit cigarettes were stored. Three teams were drawn from our headquarters-Accra, Tema collection, Ho and Tamale. We had sent two men on a mission who gave us the location.” she said.
Madam Tibanye highlighted the team encountered some challenges in transporting the seized tobacco products to their warehouse for further action.
“This exercise was carried out in collaboration with British-American Tobacco, they gave us the intel. We had to engage the military to assist us because of the curfew. The security situation was not favourable, so we had to manage to get what we could get and lock the rest at the warehouse and transported to Tamale. In all, we had 60. 9 million sticks of illicit cigarettes,” she added.
She continued, “Tamale collection on their own also arrested 162 boxes of cigarettes. Before the Pulmakom operation, there was a few that we got together with drugs that are prohibited and some pornographic items which are also going to be destroyed.”
However, Madam Tibanye said the culprits managed to escape but investigations are underway to apprehend them.
She disclosed that, a staggering GHC 7,951,238.39 as the tax losses incurred by GRA from the impounded tobacco products.
Madam Tibanye expressed concern over the billions of cedis lost nationally due to tax evasion, underscoring the detrimental effects on the country’s finances.
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