By
Laudia Sawer
Tema, Oct 13, GNA – Transit trucks conveying
exported goods from Ghana’s ports to neighbouring countries are to be bonded by
the Custom Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) from next year.
The introduction of the bond is to halt the
diversion of such goods onto the Ghanaian market, Mr Cletus Poulere, Custom
Officer in-charge of the Transit Terminal at the Tema Port, revealed this on
during a day’s stakeholders meeting organized by the Burkina Faso Chamber of
Commerce and Industry Tema.
Mr Poulere, briefing participants, said
diversion of goods along the transit corridor had become rampant in recent
times, therefore the need to put in measures to curb the exercise.
He indicated however that leadership of Custom
were working on the fine details of the said bond before its implementation.
He noted that diversion of transit goods
deprived Ghana and the destination countries of needed revenue, as no duties
where charged on them since they were not meant for the Ghanaian market.
The officer regretted that instead of
conveying the goods as declared, they ended up putting it on the local market
adding, some went to the extent of changing the number plates of the trucks
making it difficult to trace by Customs.
Mr Poulere stated that even though Custom had
a monitoring team, it was sometimes difficult to obtain information from the
system confirming the arrival of the truck at the destination country.
According to him, some diversion were detected
after six months during auditing and sanctions dully imposed on them.
Mr Abdoulaye Sherife Ouedraogo, Burkina Faso
Chamber of Commerce and Industry Ghana representative, confirmed the prevalence
of diversion of goods but opined that it was mostly perpetrated by the Ghanaian
transit truck drivers.
Mr Ouedraogo said his outfit found it fit to
organize the meeting to enable stakeholders to sensitize Burkina freight
forwarders working in Tema on the new challenges and dynamics of trade on the
transit corridor.
He added that it also fit into his outfit’s
strategic plan to mobilize the consular intelligence and to put at the disposal
of economic information to allow them to effectively carry out their activities
and plan future transformations.
He invited Ghanaians to established businesses
in Burkina Faso while advising Burkina nationals in Ghana to do genuine
businesses and observe all legal procedures covering their transactions in
Ghana.
Mr Osei Ntiamoah, Head of Transit at the SIC
Insurance Company Limited, on his part, reminded participants that the Economic
Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) protocol of 1982 and 1990 enjoined
countries in the sub-region to appoint a national guarantor to effect a single
transit guarantee system for transit goods.
Mr Ntiamoah explained that the insurance bond
under the system which was 0.5 per cent of cost of goods was aimed at promoting
free movements of goods from one member state to the other without additional
cost of acquiring insurance on entry to every country along the corridor.
GNA