200 PERCENT PENALTY ON SMUGGLED RICE (1B, JAN 17, 2011)

THE Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has slapped a 200 per cent penalty on smuggled rice brought into the country by rice importers through Elubo in the Jomoro District of the Western Region.
This followed the arrest of three truck drivers who were carrying among them 1,539 bags of rice but declared only 400 bags and, therefore, paid only GH¢5,449.23 as duty, instead of about GH¢40,000.
The brands included low grade 50kg of Uncle Sam, Lion and Papillion brands of rice, with accompanying documents examined and passed by officials of the Customs Division of GRA at the Elubo Border.
No duty was, therefore, paid on the extra 1,139 bags of high grade rice, mostly 25kg, which had been concealed among the low grade ones.
The illegal act was uncovered after a re-examination of the trucks at the Police Reserve Park in Takoradi last Saturday. The quantity of rice shot up from 400 bags to a whopping 1,539 bags of high grade Uncle Sam rice.
The re-examination of the smuggled rice, carried out by the Anti-Revenue Leakage Unit of the GRA and National Security officials in the Western Region, in the presence of the police, was on the orders of the Head of the GRA, Mr George Blankson.
Ghana currently loses about GH¢200,000 a week through smuggling, which is usually carried out through the Elubo and other entry points.
On the GC-Net document shown to the Daily Graphic, the first truck, with the registration number WR 1525 P, had declared that it was carrying 400 bags of low grade broken rice but it was later discovered to be carrying 855 bags of high grade rice sandwiched with the low grade ones.
The second and third trucks, with the registration numbers AS 3371 Y and AS 8857 V, respectively, which were said to be sharing the 400 bags with the first truck, were seen to be carrying 500 bags and 184 bags, respectively, using the same method.
Explaining the modus operandi of the smugglers to the Daily Graphic, a member of the team from Accra, Mr T.O. Mills, said the smugglers packed the high grade rice into the trucks and used the low grade 50-kg bags to cover it.
That aside, he said, they also used onion bags and other low duty commodities imported through the border to smuggle in the high grade rice in order to evade tax.
The smugglers, according to Mr Mills, issued out Value Added Tax (VAT) invoices on the sale of the smuggled rice.
“This they show at the barriers, making it look as if they bought the rice in the country and, therefore, should not attract any import duty,” he said.
The smugglers, according to the officials of the Anti-Revenue Leakage Unit who carried out the exercise, attempted to bribe them (the officials), for which reason they would also be prosecuted on charges of bribery.