The Ghana Revenue Authority has partially shut down a warehouse operated under the China Mall brand on Spintex Road over alleged violations of the country’s tax laws.
The enforcement action, carried out on Thursday, July 9, followed intelligence gathered from members of the public regarding suspected tax irregularities at the facility.
According to the GRA, investigations revealed that although the premises operate under the China Mall brand, the warehouse is officially registered as CM Super Plaza under a different Tax Identification Number (TIN), making it a separate taxpayer in the Authority’s records.
Speaking to journalists after the operation, Assistant Commissioner in charge of Accra Central Enforcement, Joseph Adjeikwei, said officials initially believed they were dealing with China Mall but later discovered discrepancies in the registration details.
“We came here, honestly, with the belief that they are China Mall. As you can see, we have it labelled on the building, China Mall. But then we had to do some test fetches to know exactly what it is.”
He explained that checks conducted by the Authority showed that the TIN being used by the business differed from that of China Mall.
“When we checked the TIN, we realized that this TIN is different from the TIN that’s registered as China Mall. China Mall is using a different TIN. This is different. So then, obviously, in our system, they are a different taxpayer.”
Mr. Adjeikwei further alleged that the company had been issuing its own receipts without obtaining the necessary approval from the GRA and had failed to complete onboarding onto the Authority’s electronic invoicing platform despite initiating the process last year.
The GRA said it has retrieved records from the company and will undertake an assessment to compare its internal records with tax returns already submitted to determine whether there has been any under-declaration of taxes.
However, the Authority said it was too early to determine whether the company owed any taxes.
“Until we compare what we pull from their records with what they have declared, we wouldn’t be able to give you a good response to your question.”
As part of what the Authority described as a “human face” approach to enforcement, only the warehouse has been sealed while the retail section of the business has been allowed to continue operating temporarily.
“We have sealed off their warehouse and allowed the retail shop to do some work… We’ve given them some grace period of a week to correct their wrongs and then beyond that, obviously, we’ll tighten the screws.”
The GRA has given the company one week to address the identified breaches or risk further sanctions.
