Popular Kumasi restaurant to be prosecuted for evading VAT
Stock exchange makes slight gain in dull trading
Popular Kumasi restaurant to be prosecuted for evading VAT
Kumasi (Ashanti), 6th January 00
Owners of Chopsticks, a popular restaurant in Kumasi, are to be put before court for not operating with receipts issued by the VAT Service.
A joint statement issued and signed by Mr. Samuel Tweneboa-Kodua, Ashanti Regional Head of VAT Service and Mr. Samuel Sarpong, Zonal Head, Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in Kumasi, on Wednesday, said papers for the prosecution was being prepared.
The statement said a joint monitoring exercise recently conducted by the SFO and VAT Service showed that waiters at the restaurant, in connivance with the manager, issue unauthorised receipts to its customers.
It said this means that the tax collected by Chopsticks did not go to the VAT Service but to the culprits.
The statement said late last year, when Mr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Minister of Education and Chairman of the VAT Oversight Committee, paid a working visit to Kumasi he expressed concern about the non-co-operation of some VAT registered traders in the collection of the tax.
This, the statement said, led to the intensification of the monitoring exercise by the SFO and the VAT Service during which it was detected that some restaurants and nightclubs were issuing different receipts to their customers.
The statement, therefore, warned all business houses in the region, which are flouting the VAT Law, to be on the look out.
It advised customers to insist on VAT receipts when they pay for goods and services from commercial concerns, which charge VAT.
GRi
Stock exchange makes slight gain in dull trading
Accra (Greater Accra), 6th January 00
The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) All Share Index made a slight gain on Wednesday but the change for the year slumped from one per cent on the first day of trading to 0.14 per cent.
The GSE all Share Index, the main market indicator, went up by 0.05 from 737.16 points to 737.21 points in another dull session.
Total shares traded went up from 3,500 on Monday to 12,300, but this is still a far cry from active sessions of the bourse.
Total offers were 437,840 compared with 335,950 while bids were 32,900 compared with Monday's 24,500.
Market capitalisation increased to 3,027.05 billion cedis on Wednesday from 3,206.98 billion cedis.
On the broader market, there was only one price change, Fan Milk Limited (FML) gaining four cedis at 920 cedis.
Brokers have attributed the poor performance of the exchange last year to the withdrawal of major foreign investors.
The following are the last prices of equities in cedis :
ABL 450
AGC 18,700
ALW 2,489
BAT 469
CFAO 38
EIC 1,880
FML 920 +4
GBL 1,450
GCB 760
GGL 950
HFC 750
MGL 200
MLC 151
MOGL 12,800
PAF 300
PZ 800
SCB 19,100
SPPC 150
SSB 1,984
UNIL 1,850
UTC E 125
CMLT 420
GRi