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Ghana Revenue Authority donates seized cooking oil to National School Feeding Programme
via GhanaWeb5 min read
The Ghana Revenue Authority GRA has donated 39,256 jerry cans of vegetable cooking oil, confiscated earlier this year, to the National School Feeding Programme. This donation follows an investigation into widespread customs fraud related to the consignment. The 18 trucks carrying the oil were intercepted in February at the Gorm barrier on the Tema Motorway by a joint team of Customs officers and National Security personnel. The cargo, declared as transit goods from Togo through Ghana to Niger, was found to have falsified trade documentation, under-declared goods, and incorrect tariff classification. Investigations revealed that export documents from Togolese Customs showed the goods originated from Malaysia and Indonesia and were destined for two companies in Abidjan, C么te d鈥橧voire, contradicting declarations made at Ghana鈥檚 Akanu border that stated Niger as the final destination. The GRA Commissioner-General, Anthony Kwasi Sarpong, stated that the decision to allocate the confiscated goods to the School Feeding Programme was made on the directive of the Ministry of Finance. Discrepancies included an under-declaration of 4,010 jerry cans of cooking oil and a consignment declared as tomato paste found to contain tomato seasoning powder. The cooking oil was also wrongly classified under a tariff attracting a 20 percent import duty instead of the applicable 35 percent rate. Enquiries with the Nigerian Chamber of Commerce failed to verify the taxpayer identification details of th
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