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THE Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) is collaborating with the Petroleum Commission and the National Petroleum Corporation to recover an amount of $360,240 in debt as surface rental fees from two companies operating in the country currently.
The two entities, said to have partly gone dormant at some point but have resumed commerce activities, were named as Media Development Limited, which owed an amount of $313,040, and Eco-Atlantic, which owed $47,200.
The Commissioner-General of the GRA, Anthony Sarpong, who stated this when he appeared before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament yesterday, said both entities had paid nothing so far on their debt.
Giving an update to members of the PAC on outstanding and late payments of surface rental fees by some oil companies in Ghana, the commissioner said the GRA had already engaged them and commenced activities to recover the money.
“We have written to them to remind them of the outstanding debt that they owe prior to them becoming partially inactive, and continue to also notify the Petroleum Commission that any regulatory licences that we have to give to them to take account of this debt should be used as a means to pay the outstanding debt,” he said.
The Auditor-General recommended in the 2025 Auditor-General’s report for the GRA to collect an amount of $2.7 million in 2023 and $2.9 million in 2024.
The commissioner noted that there were four categories of companies indebted to the GRA.
He said from the first category of companies, as of today, the authority had so far collected $315,600 from the outstanding amount owed to surface rentals, with the second category being about $1,728,125.
“This amount relates to three companies whose agreements have been terminated, and currently they are not operating and are not in the country,” he said.
He, however, said the commission was still working with the Petroleum Commission, which had notified the GRA that any time they appeared in the jurisdiction, they would support them in terms of recovery.
“Secondly, we are also working through what we call the exchange of information channels with the countries where these three entities reside formally to be able to provide the fact that they owe taxes in Ghana and use that means to collect the amount,” he added.
He further said the third category was Op-Co, which operated on the borders of Ghana and Togo but had ceased operations after reporting a force majeure in its activities. It owes $537,795.
Mr Sarpong mentioned other entities as Britannia U Limited, which owed $760,209, UB Resources Limited, $105,416, and Swiss African Oil Company Limited, $862,500.
On what measures were being taken to retrieve the amount they owed since they now resided outside, Mr Sarpong said the GRA had notified the Petroleum Commission that any time they came around, they should use their channels to remind them and also collect the funds.
He added that the GRA had a multilateral arrangement with countries under what he called the exchange of information.
“We are collaborating with the Petroleum Commission and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation as institutions that are the first port of call, and they also grant some level of licences to ensure that entities that are not fulfilling the obligations in this matter do not get the necessary permits until they do so.
With respect to 2025, he said all the major operating entities had paid their surface rentals.
When asked how surface rentals, which stood at $2.7 million in 2023, instantly jumped to $2.9 million in 2024, the Commissioner blamed the increase on three entities which had ceased operations in Ghana.
“We have still not taken them off, and so their bills are included in the 2024 one, and then we also have two entities that also had their bills coming in by 2025.
“Those two entities have settled those bills, and so that is the reason for the increase in 2024,” he said.
