Indigenous Ghanaian oil company, GOIL, has dismissed claims in the 2018 Auditor General’s Report that it has defaulted in payment of levies to the state.
The Auditor-General, at a press conference, last week, accused some ten oil marketing companies including GOIL, for causing the state to lose about GHc33,675,044 between 2016 and 2017.
According to Auditor General, review of petroleum products lifted at TOR between November 2016 and November 2017 showed that 10 OMCs defaulted in the payment of excise duties, taxes and levies amounting to GH¢33,675,044.
A data from the Auditor General showed that GOIL owed the state to the tune of GH¢27,688,000.
However, GOIL, in a statement signed by its public relations officer, rejected the claims and clarified the issue.
“Sometime in August last year, GOIL received a letter from the Commissioner, Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) in connection with a recovery of taxes and levies of petroleum liftings, covering the period January 2013 to December 2017 amounting to GHc19, 921, 401, 62.
“GOIL promptly responded by communicating to the GRA, using our analysed schedule to point out errors in declarations submitted to GOIL. GOIL specifically pointed out that all the declarations listed by the GRA had errors which could not be corrected via the GCNet system and therefore new declarations had to be made to replace them.
“Following that, GOIL was reliably informed by the GCNet that the erroneous declarations would be expunged from the records, after a month of the date of declaration,” the statement said.
It added that: “Our records which we have submitted to GRA therefore shows that GOIL has paid all taxes and levies of lifted petroleum products during the period indicated.”
GOIL said it found it strange that despite the clarifications, issues had been raised in Part three of the 2018 Auditor-General’s report under the heading: ‘TOR Default in the Payment of Petroleum Liftings’.
Specifically in item numbers 60 and 65, the report indicated that GOIL defaulted in the payment of excise duties, taxes and levies amounting to GHc 27,688,978.98 and MGO liftings amounting to GHS 497,490.
As further proof of non-liability, the GRA itself awarded GOIL the “2017 OVERALL BEST TAX PAYER (CUSTOMS DIVISION’ last year.
“We have, therefore, communicated to the GRA again and the Auditor-General’s office for the records to be formally corrected to reflect our current tax position and, in particular, clarify any misconceptions raised as a result of the publication of the Auditor-General’s report,” the company noted.
GOIL reiterated that it is a law-abiding corporate entity and has always paid its taxes promptly and regularly and will never renege in its obligations towards the state.
By:Michael Creg Afful
