Customs commissioner of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) Colonel Kwadwo Damoah (rtd) has reiterated that he has not been at peace since he was designated as the Customs Commissioner.
“The lord sees everything…. a lot of things have happened …since I became the customs commissioner…I have never been at peace…there’s something always happening …but God takes me out of it…recently I was accused of smuggling fuel… God knows those are all false accusations…
“A vehicle was arrested to the Naval base in Takoradi…the vehicle was from Togo to Cote d’ Ivoire; Lomé port to the Abidjan port…but the vehicle was in a bad state…so Maritime brought a report saying that the ship was leaking which will result to environmental pollution… at last they decided to fine them.
“I made my lawyer go through their documents which proved that the vehicle indeed was going to Abidjan and not Ghana… we had no right to keep them here…so I wrote a letter to the Navy head in Secondi to allow the vehicle move to it destination which he did…later I was accused of collaborating with the Jubilee House …which got the President angry because he was also accused,” he lamented.
Reacting to the report by the Office of the Special Prosecutor in interview with Alhassan Bin Jibril Spelele, host of Oman Yi Mu Nsem morning show on OilCity Radio in Kwesiminstim- Takoradi, he noted that the tax reduction given to Labianca Foods Limited is permitted law.
“In 2016 parliament made customs law and in section 12 of the law has the Customs Advance Ruling which states that a trader can solicit for a discount on a particular good he or she intends to trade in from abroad. If the trader brings legal documents to prove that indeed these are the goods, he/she want to trade with for a period of time…and the country will generate profits called the ‘sustainable revenue’.
“We will allow the trader import these goods…this act is permitted by the law…and that is exactly what Labianca foods did…as a matter of fact Labianca isn’t the only company that goes through such process,” he said.
He added that “the Labianca Limited has been in existence before the NPP came into power, and before Ms. Eunice Jacqueline Buah Asomah became a member of the council of state…what happened was in 2017 some traders met with my predecessor which resulted to some agreement … companies who import frozen foods were given a discount depending on the amount … and this went through the proper procedure recognizable by law…so this is why Labianca Foods got the discount it had.”
“However, because the agreement was a discount is given per the amount of goods imported…. I think Labianca Foods imported in more foods than the usual amount which doesn’t concede with the discount given…. Therefore, she had a reduction of tax because she imported a large sum of goods,” he said.
According to him, the law permits the Commissioner and the Deputy commissioner of customs to give such tax reductions.
“ Just as it is done in the market…when you buy more goods..you request for a discount…it applies to this situation also.”
Following the Special Prosecutor’s recent report on alleged corruption at Labianca Foods, Mr. Damoah advised the Special Prosecutor, Mr. Kissi Agyebeng to tread with caution.
“I have lived a meaningful life and if he attempts to destroy me it won’t be easy for him. People have tried and I have survived and this one too I will survive it.”
The Special Prosecutor reported on Tuesday that it had recovered outstanding import duties of more over GHC1 million from Eunice Jacqueline Buah Asomah-Labianca Hinneh’s Foods. The amount represents a shortfall in import duties the frozen foods company paid to the state.
The report also charged Joseph Adu Kyei, a deputy customs commissioner in charge of operations, with issuing what it referred to as an illegal customs advance ruling that decreased the benchmark values of the frozen foods imported by Labianca Limited, lowering the company’s tax liabilities to the government.
