28 OMCs fail to pay TOR ¢402m re-scheduled debts

The 2021 Auditor-General’s report has found that some oil marketing companies defaulted in paying to the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), re-scheduled debts totalling GH¢402,049,572.00

The Ghana Revenue Authority, according to the report, rescheduled the debt of 28 Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs), but the OMCs failed to settle the rescheduled debt totalling GH¢402,049,571.70.

“We recommended that the Commissioner should use legal means to recover the outstanding amount of GH¢402,049,571.70 from the OMCs involved”, the report said.

Read excerpts of the report pertaining to the GRA:

Outstanding duties and taxes on oil lifted – GH¢249,800,802.00

Our review disclosed that 17 OMCs between January 2021 and December 2021, did not pay the taxes and duties totalling GH¢249,800,802.28 on 29,995,530 litres of oil lifted to the Ghana Revenue Authority, Customs Division.

We recommended that the Commissioner, GRA Customs Division should fully recover the amount of GH¢249,800,802.28 from the 17 OMCs without further delay.

GRA – DOMESTIC TAX REVENUE OFFICE

Outstanding income taxes – GH¢111,652,263.00 32.

Our review of the tax files from 21 Domestic Tax Offices showed that 6,856 companies, business entities and individuals owed an amount of GH¢111,652,263.00 in corporate and individual income taxes for 2019, 2020 and 2021 years of assessment.

We urged Management to increase its enforcement role to collect all the outstanding tax revenue.

Outstanding PAYE – GH¢32,071,516.00

We noted that PAYE totalling GH¢32,071,516.00, deducted on behalf of 3,121 employees including 346 directors was not remitted to the Commissioner-General for the 2019, 2020 and 2021 years of assessment.

We urged the Commissioner-General to recover all outstanding PAYE together with appropriate penalties under Section 71 of the Revenue Administration Act.

Outstanding withholding taxes – GH¢43,471,512.00

Our audit showed that 811 companies who filed their tax returns for 2019, 2020 and 2021 years of assessment, failed to withhold taxes on goods and services procured amounting to GH¢43,471,511.50.

We recommended that the CommissionerGeneral should recover the outstanding taxes with the appropriate penalties.

VAT traders’ indebtedness – GH¢87,166,617.00

We noted that 651 registered VAT traders who filed their returns at the various tax offices owed a total of GH¢87,166,616.95 for 2019, 2020 and 2021 years of assessment.

We recommended that the Commissioner General should take the necessary steps to recover all outstanding taxes.

Outstanding returned and uncredited cheques – GH¢9,581,009.00 40.

Our review of the Returned Cheques Register at 16 Taxpayer Service Centres revealed that 316 cheques with a total value of GH¢9,581,009.14 issued by taxpayers were not honoured by their respective banks. Similarly, 128 cheques with a value of GH¢562,090.35 lodged by GRA were not credited.

We recommended that the Heads of the Tax Offices involved should ensure that the taxpayers are pursued to settle the outstanding taxes. They should also ensure that the uncredited lodgements are rectified.