The monitoring team of the Ghana Revenue Authority, GRA has mobilised over 85 million cedis in domestic revenue within the first five months of operation.
The monies were recovered by four teams put in place to undertake risk based and intelligence driven operations across the country between October 2022 and February 2023.
The four teams which were inaugurated in October, 2022 comprise the Tema, Eastern Frontier based at Dabala, Western Frontier based in Kumasi and the Vehicle Taskforce which impounded some goods whose duty haven’t been paid.
They were also put in place to ensure that correct amounts of duty are paid by importers and also as a tool to curtail smuggling across the country.
Addressing the media during a briefing, Commissioner of Customs at the GRA, Alhaji Seidu Iddrisu Iddisah stressed that the recoveries will go a long way to boost revenue generation in the country.
“As you know, customs is supposed to be at all the entry points to ensure that goods that come into the country meet the security and health needs of the people and the country has laws to deal with the importation of items as well as the payment of right duties to the state which is used as an economic tool. We have layers of enforcement and one of them is the establishment of the monitoring teams that operate at certain strategic areas to ensure that if one is able to dodge from the entry points, these teams will be able to apprehend them for the right amount of duties and customs processes to be done. The teams have been very successful since it was set up by collecting over 85 million cedis from only Tema and other goods that were seized because they did not meet the standards required for the country” he said.
“The Western Frontier Team has also recovered a total short collection of GH₵1,466,797.57. while the Vehicle Taskforce (Nationwide) intercepted and detained 193 uncustomed vehicles in the last quarter of 2022 and 80 vehicles between January and February 2023,” he added.
He also noted that, the recoveries made by the team will go a long way to contribute to the revenue drive of the state as well as ensuring that security of the country is intact.
On the concerns of some team members harassing innocent traders at some of the country’s borders, the Commissioner admitted that such complaints have been made in the public domain but without any concrete evidence.
“We have always encouraged people to come out with evidence of our team members harassing individuals or any form of corruption so that we can investigate and deal with the officers involved. We have code of ethics and conducts and when it is breached, the necessary sanctions are applied accordingly” he assured.
The Authority advises the general public to cooperate with the Monitoring Teams and be assured that the teams will discharge their duties with the highest professional standards.
