THE Minister-designate of Finance, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, has designated the Commissioner of Customs as the sole officer to approve the clearance of goods in warehouses under the Customs Suspense Regime (CSR).
The CSR permits importers to suspend payment of import duties because the imports are to be kept in bonded warehouses.
This, according to the Minister, was to curb abuses in the enforcement of the regime which resulted in revenue losses as well as additional accountability.
Previously, the Sector Commanders in the various regions were cloth with the responsibility to approve the clearance of goods kept in warehouses under the suspense regime within their jurisdictions.
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Dr Amin Adam was speaking here at Tema yesterday when he undertook a working visit to the Tema Port enclave to interact with the various agencies operating within the area.
Accompanied by the Minister of State designate of Finance, Abena Osei-Asare, Commissioner General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Commissioner of Customs Alhaji Seidu Iddris Iddisah and other officials from the Ministry and GRA, the visit was to obtain at first hand challenges in the operations of the various agencies and motivate the workers towards improving revenue mobilisation.
Citing smuggling and under-valuation of goods as some of the impediments to improve revenue mobilisation, he said, the Ministry was focused on implementing new strategies to clamp down on the challenges.
Amongst the measures and strategies, the Minister noted, was the engagement of all the security agencies including the Ghana Immigration Service to institute a taskforce to patrol the country's borders and unapproved routes to check and fight the activities of smuggling.
To curtail the practice of under-declaration which result in the abuse of transaction values, he stated that, the Ministry was working to deploy a system to track ships destined to the shores of Ghana from its origin.
Dr Amin Adam said that, additionally, the Ministry would streamline working relations with other agencies including the Ghana Shipping Authority and Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) to enhance cooperation and exchange of real time information.
Also, he said, another strategy would be the integration of all 19 digital platforms to enable businesses work easily with the GRA and other agencies.
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The Minister noted that he was ready to work with GRA to address challenges facing the Authority and commended the revenue mobilisation efforts of officials at the Tema Port.
"I am very determined to work with you at the management and staff level to address the challenges that you have been experiencing and having over the years. There are leakages and you must ensure that we block those leakages.
"I have received information that there are some goods that are not accounted for and I have been discussing with the commissioner-general on how we resolve this because it is important that we put in extreme measures to ensure the accountability of commanders at the warehouses," Dr Amin Adam said.
He pledged to ensure that issues about promotion of staff would be addressed while building their capacity and enhancing the GRA's intelligence unit.
The Sector Commander of the Tema Port, Christiana Adjei, said despite some challenges, the unit was implementing robust policies and fostering a culture of transparency and accountability to meet the demands of the modern global trading environment of facilitating trade as well as mobilising revenue for the country.
Mr Michael Achagwe Luguje, Director General, GPHA, dismissed recent reports that Ghana's ports was losing traffic to neighbouring countries saying, "the data does not suggest any increase in their cargo arrivals which hangs around 300,000 tonnes annually at Togo to be specific."
