The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has arrested staff from three China Mall outlets after undercover checks found that some sales had not been recorded on its approved Electronic VAT (E-VAT) invoicing system.
The outlets involved are in Ashaiman, Weija and Nsawam.
GRA officials carried out what they described as a mystery shopping exercise, posing as ordinary customers and making purchases at the branches. They then checked whether the transactions had appeared on the Authority’s electronic platform.
Wisdom Kofi Xetor, head of the GRA’s Revenue Protection Unit, said the exercise revealed that some of the sales had not been captured.
“We have several China Mall outlets across the country. We visited the one in Ashaiman and conducted a mystery shopping exercise,” he told journalists after the operation.
“We made purchases and went through the transactions. After that, we verified whether the transactions had been captured on our system, and we discovered that some of them had not been reflected.”
Mr Xetor said the missing transactions appeared to have been diverted from the approved system.
“This means those transactions had been diverted. Even the invoices issued did not conform to our approved invoicing system,” he said.
The GRA suspects the outlets may have been using unauthorised invoicing platforms to keep some sales off the E-VAT system.
The Authority has not identified the people arrested or disclosed how many staff members were taken into custody. Mr Xetor said investigations would establish the scale of the suspected tax evasion.
The GRA also said it would seek prosecution if deliberate breaches were confirmed. It mentioned prison terms of up to five years, although that is the maximum penalty referred to by the Authority and not a sentence imposed in this case.
No charges have been announced, and there has been no recorded response from China Mall.
Previous E-VAT enforcement
The arrests are not the first enforcement action involving China Mall and the electronic invoicing system. The GRA shut branches of the chain in 2022 over non-compliance with e-invoicing requirements.
E-VAT is not a new tax. It is the GRA’s electronic system for producing VAT receipts, and the Authority installs it free of charge for VAT-registered businesses that are required to use it.
The GRA says a genuine E-VAT receipt should include the Commissioner-General’s signature, a QR code that allows verification, and a receipt signature that cannot be altered.
It must also show the exact date and time of the transaction, as well as a serial number, receipt number and machine registration code.
Customers with questions can contact the GRA on 0800-900-110 or by email at info@gra.gov.gh.
