The owners of an event center in East Legon have been kept out by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) because they failed to register the business to pay taxes.
The DE ICON event center was running without a permit from the authorities.
The GRA’s Debt Management, Compliance and Enforcement team carried out the operation due to the illegality.
Nathaniel Tetteh, the unit’s chief revenue officer, claims that the center’s proprietors were aware of the tax regulations and had tax forms for more than five months.
He said that the GRA would not allow the business to operate in the area until the registration process was finished.
“Today, we have advised them to go and complete the registration process and that would warrant the opening of the facility for them to operate,” Mr Tetteh said.
He took the opportunity to warn businesses against nonpayment of taxes and cautioned them to get their businesses registered before they find themselves wanting.
Meanwhile, the DE ICON event centre has also been found to have been engaged in power theft.
It was discovered when the Electricity Company of Ghana visited the premises on Monday, August 8, 2022.
The officers observed that all lighting systems and other electricals, including air-conditioners and fridges among others, were functioning without a secondary source.
According to the manager in charge of revenue protection and technical investigations of the ECG, Ing. Ishmael Oku, “a rough calculation of the power consumption of the facility is pegged at about GH¢40,000”.
He said the authority will serve owners of the facility with an illegal connection notice, and an investigation would be carried out thereafter.
“The meter in the premises [also] has domestic billing, but it’s being used for commercial purposes. We would investigate this to establish how they came by this meter,” he added in an interview with Graphic Online.