A cargo truck being inspected
The Ghana Revenue Authority, GRA monitoring team has recovered more than 85 million cedis as short revenue for the state within the first five months of its inception.
The teams which have been divided into areas have significantly impacted on revenue mobilization between October, 2022 and February, 2023 according to the Customs Division of the GRA.
The Division has put in place several monitoring Teams to ensure that the correct amounts of duties are paid by importers and also as a tool to curtail smuggling across the country.
Four teams were inaugurated in October, 2022 to undertake risk based and intelligence driven operations across the country.
Commissioner of Customs Alhaji Seidu Iddrisu Iddisah cautioned that the team will not compromise on any unethical exercise by any importer or trader against the country’s custom laws.
According to him, the recoveries made by the team will go a long way to contribute to the revenue drive of the state as well as ensuring the security of the country.
“The teams have been very successful since it was set up towards the latter part of last year by collecting over GH¢85 million from only Tema and other goods that were seized because they did not meet the standards required for the country” he noted.
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 Western Frontier Team has also recovered a total short collection of GH¢1,466,797.57
The Vehicle Taskforce (Nationwide) intercepted and detained 193 uncustomed vehicles in the last quarter of 2022 and 80 vehicles between January and February 2023.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri