(Ecofin Agency) - The offices of the Internet access provider Surfline, holder of a broadband access license, were closed down on October 30, 2018, by Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) for non-payment of its taxes. The total of GHC37 million ($7,627,012) is required from Surfline as unpaid taxes and penalties for the 2015-2017 period.

Kwasi Bobia-Ansah, Assistant Commissioner of Communications and Public Affairs of the GRA, declared that Surfline’s offices were closed down because the company showed no will to solve the problems related to its tax liabilities during the ten days period it was allowed to comply. "We prefer to dialogue…we just don’t close down. This is one of the last tools available to us. Before there is a distress action, there are phone calls and reminders. We don’t just get up one day to shut them down", Kwasi Bobia-Ansah explained.

Like Surfline, the mobile telephone operator Glo is also in the radar of the GRA for unpaid taxes. However, the Nigerian group’s offices were not closed down because it paid GHC2 million ($412,270) out of the GHC10 million ($2,061,354) of unpaid taxes.