Malpractices at Ports to Affect 1D1F Programme – AGI

All factories under government’s One District One Factory initiative will find it difficult to survive should the trend of malpractices and revenue leakages at the ports continue, Association of Ghana Industry, AGI said.

President of AGI, Dr Yaw Adu Gyamfi said some importers are finding ways to evade tax and duties through connivance with some revenue officials at the ports leading to the disadvantage of local manufactures.

In 2016, the Ghana Revenue Authority and Customs missed its annual revenue target by 4.6 percent.

Dr Adu Gyamfi believes the trends of under-invoicing, under-declaration and mis-description of imports in order to pay less in taxes remain very high at the ports.

“In the case of the electrical cables, AGI’s investigations revealed that the unit prices declared by the importer to customs is different from the unit prices from the same manufacturer,” Dr Adu Gyamfi revealed.

Touching on the effects this trend could have on government’s one-district-one-factory initiative, the AGI revealed the possibility of most factories collapsing and also the risk of experiencing another failed manufacturing effort if the trend continues.

Meanwhile, the Ghana Revenue Authority, GRA, has disclosed that it is preparing to take a holistic review of the system automation and paperless operations at the Tema and Takoradi Ports.

After months of the implementation of the paperless system, the Customs Division has identified areas with challenges and willing to address it in other not to disrupt revenue mobilization.

In an exclusive interview with JoyBusiness , Deputy Commissioner in charge of Policy and Programmes at the GRA, Patrick Yawutse noted, the review is very critical to the success of the programme.

Source: JoyBusiness