GHANA REVENUE AUTHORITY vrs AIRTEL GHANA LTD

The plaintiff/respondent, a statutory institution of Ghana charged with the responsibility for assessing, collecting and accounting for taxes and levies as provided by the laws of Ghana, in particular the Revenue Administration Act, 2016 (Act 915), Value Added Tax, 2013 (Act 870) and Income Tax Act, 2015 (Act 896) reviewed assessment of the tax obligation of Defendant/appellant, an incorporated company operating in the communication industry, and found defendant’s tax liability to the State to be GHC38,484,618.90 and communicated this liability to defendant by a letter dated 21st March, 2022. The Defendant/appellant acknowledged its liability and for that matter its indebtedness to plaintiff/respondent by a letter dated 14th September 2022. Nevertheless, despite repeated demands made on defendant/appellant to pay up its indebtedness, it failed and/or refused to pay, save the aggregate payments of GHC1,030,506.05 on account in March 2022 leaving an outstanding balance of GHC37,454,112.85; hence the institution of the action at the Court below in which the plaintiff/respondent sought the recovery of the tax liability of GHC37,454,112.85 being the defendant/appellant’s indebtedness to the plaintiff/respondent for the 2017 to 2018 years of assessment and interest and penalties on the claimed sum at 125% of the statutory rate, compounded monthly from 21st March 2022 till date of final payment.

The defendant/appellant denied liability and contended that it was rather the Joint Liquidator of Millicom Ghana Company Limited that dealt with plaintiff/respondent on the tax issues. Defendant denied acknowledging its indebtedness to plaintiff/respondent in the letter dated 14th September 2022 but indicated in that letter that it was engaging Millicom Ghana Company Limited on its tax obligation to plaintiff/respondent. Defendant averred further that the payment of GHC1,030,619.90 was made in the name of Millicom Ghana Company Limited for an undisputed part of the tax assessment by the plaintiff/respondent as a sign of good faith. The gravemen of the defence put up by the defendant/appellant is that the entity to bear the tax liability being claimed by plaintiff/respondent is Millicom Ghana Company Limited through its liquidators and that it is not liable to satisfy the tax obligations of Millicom Ghana Company Limited.

It was in this state of the respective pleadings of the parties that the plaintiff/respondent filed an application for summary judgment under O