The Association of Customs House Agents Ghana (ACHAG) has indicated that the high cost of doing business at Ghana’s ports and borders was a major source of worry to the industry players.
ACHAG questioned the presence of what they termed as some nuisance taxes at the ports and called on the government to eliminate them.
For example, they questioned why the government was holding on to the COVID-19 health recovery levy and Ministry of Health Disinfection Fee as well as the Network Charge of 0.04 percent on free on board (FOB) and its related VAT charges.
The outgoing president of ACHAG, Yaw Kyei who stated this, during the third annual general meeting of ACHAG held in Tema also bemoaned the illegitimate and indiscriminate charges by some service.
providers, cumbersome clearance procedures and delays in the processing of cargo documents, among others, they say contributes to the high cost of doing business at the ports.
The AGM held on the theme, ‘Doing business at the port in the face of current economic challenges,’ will also see the election of new executives to steer the affairs of ACHAG.
Mr Kyei said in 2021 and 2022, Customs realized GH¢16,086,523,592.52 and GH¢22,262,971,531.28 respectively to the national budget however, last year, the Tema Collection of Customs despite imports being characterised by lower imports volumes, was short of attaining the set GH¢25.6 billion revenue target by GH¢1.2 billion.
These figures, he said, pointed to pressure on the ports to deliver set targets and have led to in some cases, increasing taxes to achieve targets as a convenient way out but has incidentally contributed to high cost of doing business at the ports.
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Story by: Osei Akoto(Teacher Kojo) #Ahotoronline.com
