The Ghana Revenue Authority has raided some retail shops in Accra to supervise the removal of excisable products without tax stamps from the shelves.

The affected shops which include Melcom, Shoprite, MaxMart and other shops had their products seized by the GRA officials on today Wednesday April 18 as part of measures to ensure compliance of the tax stamp policy which was implemented March 1 this year.

The Authority on Wednesday embarked on  an unannounced swoop on some shops in the capital to inspect and clear their shelves of excisable products without tax stamps.

According to a report by 3news.com, the first port of call for the team was the Industrial Area Branch of Melcom.

It added that the Melcom staff present were ordered to remove from their shelves all products that did not have the stamps.

The next stop was GIHOC Distilleries, also in the Area. Authorities of the company were said to have got a tip-off before the GRA officials got to their premises.

There were, therefore, no unstamped products on display when the team got there.

Chief Executive Officer GIHOC Distilleries Maxwell Kofi Jumah used the opportunity to take the GRA team around, showing them their tax stamp machine and how it works.

He  acknowledged that acquiring the tax stamp machine was costly but said it is rewarding to have one.

“The point is there is a cost to [acquiring a tax fixing machine] but what we get back in terms of benefits far outweighs the cost and indeed I have ordered that we buy more,” he said.