A group of spare parts dealers at Abossey Okai are expressing strong displeasure over the covert actions of the Abossey Okai Spare Dealers Association’s leadership concerning a strike scheduled for November 1, 2023, to protest the implementation of the Ghana Revenue Authority’s (GRA) Electronic Value Added Tax (VAT) compliance exercise cancelled indefinitely.
The GRA’s enforcement team has been deploying officers to the shops and warehouses of association members in the Greater Accra and Ashanti Regions due to the association’s non-compliance with the electronic tax collection system.
This system was introduced by the GRA on October 1, 2022, to enhance revenue collection accuracy and address income discrepancies in businesses.
Mr Joseph Annan, the Accra Area Enforcement Manager, explained that enforcement measures have become necessary following multiple unsuccessful attempts to persuade the association members to comply with the law.
However, some association members are alleging that the leadership of the association is colluding with certain government figures to call off the strike.
They claim that the leadership has been engaging in secret meetings with government officials to indefinitely postpone the strike without considering the concerns of the association’s members regarding the tax compliance exercise.
Mr David Nsafoah, a concerned member of the association, expressed his unease about these actions.
He mentioned that this is the second time the strike had been cancelled without proper explanations from the leadership.
Rumors circulating at Abossey Okai suggest that the leadership may have received incentives from the government to call off the strike, which, according to Mr Nsafoah, is the real reason behind their decision.
When Classfmonline.com contacted the Head of Communications for the Association, Mr Takyi Addo, for a comment on the members’ concerns about the impending strike, he declined to comment, stating that the leadership would announce their decision at the appropriate time
He indicated that the Association is not against the Electronic Value Added Tax
Discussion about this post