By Albert Allotey, GNA
Accra, June 30, GNA – Shop owners who sell alcoholic and sugar-sweetened beverages have been urged to comply with the usage of the GRA stamp authenticator App to ensure compliance with the Excise Duty Amendment Act 1108 of 2023.
Customers are also advised to download the App to authenticate whether the stamp affixed on the products were the required stamps to avoid buying fake or products with different stamps.
Ms Mary Yayra Kpogo, the Director of the Alcohol Policy Alliance – Ghana (GhanAPA), a health advocate collation, gave the advice when she led a team to undertake spot checks of excise tax stamps on alcoholic and sugar-sweetened beverages in some shops in Accra.
They used the GRA stamp authenticator App to check the eligibility of the stamps and embarked on education campaign of shop owners and customers to ensure the usage of the App.
She said the objective of the campaign by the GhanAPA was to ensure that people who sell alcoholic and sugar-sweetened beverages comply with the Excise Duty Amendment Act 1108 of 2023 to avoid confiscation of their products.
It was also aimed at enforcing the usage of the tax stamp to avoid fake products on the market, prevent consumption of the products, which are key contributing factors to non-communicable diseases among consumers.
Ms Kpogo, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency said during their visits to some shops they observed that some excise stamps were wrongly fixed on different products, while some had no stamps on them.
She said the wrongly affixed stamps and others had been reported to the Ghana Revenue Authority, Excise Tax Unit, for seizure.
She said the GhanAPA was assisting the GRA to raise revenue by enforcing the usage of the excise tax stamp to support the government in its developmental agenda and the delivering of healthcare to the citizenry.
GNA
Edited by Benjamin Mensah