Clearing agents to be prosecuted for defrauding state
The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service is to partner the Special Operations Unit (SOU) under the Office of the President to prosecute some clearing agents who have been found to have defrauded the state to the tune of GHc38 million.
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About 91 clearing agents, together with some importers, have been found to have engaged in Final Customs Verification Report (FCVR) fraud which involves fictitiously altering the original import duty to pay a lesser amount by way of forged receipts.
Modus operandi
Others have also been found to have either failed to pay port permits or abused the unpaid permits system, which is a special dispensation established for state agencies to expedite the clearance of goods from the port even before effecting payment.
A source at the Presidency told the Daily Graphic that some of the agents, after clearing the goods, failed to return to complete the necessary documentation for payments to be done.
It said the CID was in the process of engaging tax auditors and Value Added Tax (VAT) officials to augment the staff strength at the unit.
The amount owed the state by the importers include a 300-per cent penalty on the defrauded amount following the introduction of Customs Act 891 of 2015.
According to the act, “a person who counterfeits, falsifies or wilfully uses a counterfeited or falsified certificate or document required by this act under the directions of the commissioner-general in the transaction of any business commits an offence and the person shall incur a penalty of not more than 300 per cent of the amount not paid, in addition to forfeiture of the goods where applicable”.
Ultimatum
The SOU, in July this year, served a one-month ultimatum through a demand notice to the defaulting agencies to clear all outstanding amounts owed the state or attract 300 per cent penalty on the amounts owed.
But the source explained that as of now only one agent, out of the 91, had paid up.