The Deputy Minister of Finance, Mr Kwaku Kwarteng, who disclosed this in Accra yesterday attributed the challenge to non-compliance of rules governing transit trade and complicity of customs officers in clearing processes, among others, at the port.
He reiterated the government’s resolve to implement the “First Port Rule” on March 1 to check such irregularities, enhance monitoring and ensure free flow of goods at the country’s ports and road corridors.
The deputy minister was delivering a speech on behalf of the sector minister, Mr Ken Ofori Atta at the commemoration of this year’s International Customs Day (ICD).
The ICD, instituted by the World Customs Organisation seeks to recognise the critical role of customs operations in advancing socio-economic growth in member-countries.
Marked on the theme, “Smart borders for seamless trade, travel and transport”, the event brought together senior custom officials, representatives from other security agencies, partner government agencies as well as private sector players.
Mr Kwarteng observed that aside the huge loss of revenue “the practice of diverting imports meant for neighbouring countries back into the country makes our domestic traders uncompetitive as their goods find it difficult to sell because the diverted uncustomed goods are sold at lower prices and that could have negative effects on economic growth.”
Lauding the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) for the roll out of the payment of import duties on goods meant for free zone companies, the deputy minister charged the Customs Division to ensure tracking of devices mounted on vehicles that convey transit imported goods when the new port rule directive takes effect.
“I urge all importers to comply with the laws on international trade and similarly call on customs officers to be true revenue professionals whose loyalty is only to Ghana while initiating mechanisms and directives to enhance movement of goods and services across borders,” he charged.
Mr Anthony Karbo, Deputy Minister of Roads and Highways assured the ministry’s commitment to construct the requisite road networks linking Ghana and its landlocked neighbours to improve trade activities.
He said an axle load control strategy was being implemented to reduce overloading of trucks to the barest minimum and help maintain durability and longevity of the country’s road networks.
The Commissioner- General, Mr Emmanuel Nti, on his part mentioned the introduction of the Pre-Arrival Reporting System, Customs Technical Bureau and the Cargo Tracking Note (CTN) as some initiatives taken by his outfit to achieve seamless trade across borders.
The GRA, he assured, would continue to cooperate with neighbouring countries to ensure that there was seamless movement of people, goods and transport within the ECOWAS sub-region.
This, he explained would help achieve economic growth with the creation of employment opportunities to help reduce poverty across the sub-region.
Mr Harry Owusu, the Board Chairman of GRA expressed worry the authority could not achieve its set targets for last year despite the number of measures introduced by the authority and called for more stringent measures to be taken this year to ensure that targets for 2019 were achieved.
The “First Port Rule”, is an arrangement that allows custom officials from neighbouring landlocked countries including Burkina Faso and Mali to have presence at Ghana’s ports to collect taxes on transit goods, ensure proper monitoring and allow for free movement of goods.
It will also serve as a check on smuggling and dumping of goods destined for such neighbouring countries in Ghana
By Abigail Annoh
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