Business News of Friday, 19 October 2018
Source: citibusinessnews.com
2018-10-19
Any importer who imports less than 36 Twenty-Foot container per year is exempted from CTN compliance
The Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) wants the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to revoke the quota system infused into the Cargo Tracking Note (CTN).
According to GUTA, the quota system will bring unnecessary bureaucracy, time wasting, lobbying and cost that may create possible avenues for frustration and corruption.
The union has warned that it will vehemently resist any attempt by government to impose the CTN on importers through the ‘backdoor’.
The CTN system states that any importer who imports less than 36 Twenty-Foot container per year is exempted from CTN compliance.
Further, businesses that import more than 36 TEUs per year but can demonstrate that the nature of their imports and their turnovers make them small importers will also be exempted.
But in an interview with Citi Business News, the First Vice President of GUTA, Osei Brogya stated that government rescind its decision of imposing the CTN on importers in its current state.
“An importer who is supposed to bring say three 20 footer containers will face challenges due to the nature of some of the products that are imported into the country. The volume is so huge that a large quantity will not fit into 20 footer or even 40 footer so he may have to bring about two or six 20 footer containers,” he said.
“ That may cost about 25 thousand dollars. But if that person is limited to that three containers a month, then straight away he exhausts that three containers a month and then it means he has to fall into the CTN which is not right” he explained.
After numerous meetings and deliberations with government, it was agreed that small and medium scale businesses be exempted from the CTN policy.
Meanwhile, President of GUTA, Joseph Obeng, however, reiterates that any attempt by the GRA to rope them into the CTN scheme will be vehemently opposed.
“We have no doubt that any future challenges concerning CTN and other trade-related issues will be resolved more amicably and in good time. We want to state emphatically that our opposition to the CTN is infinite and therefore any attempt by policy implementers to cunningly rope us into the CTN scheme in the future will be fiercely resisted” he assured.