AN ASSISTANT Commissioner of Customs in charge of the Accra Sector Command and Chairman of the Implementation Team of the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS), Emmanuel Ohene, has revealed that the initial challenges recorded during the roll out of ICUMS have been reduced by about 70% eight months since the introduction of the system.
Mr. Ohene said the initial delay that users of the system faced when processing bill of entries, for example, was a thing of the past.
He said once an importer, through their agent, submitted documents in ICUMS that were not subject to any queries, it did not take up to two hours to process a pre-manifest declaration.
“One of the very attractive modules which is being used by about 70% of the freight forwarders is the pre manifest declaration; it is one of the pillars of trade facilitation agreement from the World Trade Organization. It allows you to process paperwork and make payment prior to the arrival of the vessel,” he explained.
The Assistant Commissioner of Customs also attributed the success of ICUMS to the decentralization of clearance processes from the Customs Technical Services Bureau.
He said now outstations across the various frontiers of the country could manage some of the various customs regimes including import, export, re-export and transit among others.
“In a place like Elubo, where we had a lot of complaints, the decentralization has taken place. Same as Aflao,” he cited.
Emmanuel Ohene also indicated that the initial problem of manifest matching that bedeviled the system was currently non-existent.
He said ICUMS broke down the previous Pre Arrival Assessment Reporting System (PAARS) and ensured that classification and valuation were done through the ICUMS with a Customs supervisor who quickly verified documents and generates a tax bill.
This, according to him, has “eliminated the multiple routes one had to go through prior to the payment of duties,” which is a hallmark of the ICUMS system.
The Chairman of the ICUMS Implementation Team also disclosed that since the advent of ICUMS, 141 customs offices across the country that hitherto were operating manually had been brought on-board the ICUMS automated systems; adding that by end of first quarter of 2021, all Customs offices would be roped onto the system.
While admitting to some genuine complaints of the trading public regarding the new system, the Assistant Commissioner of Customs insisted that ICUMS had been significantly progressive with regards to trade facilitation in Ghana.
He encouraged users of the system to be optimistically patient as the ICUMS team planned to soon introduce the second phase of the system which would see the few challenges fixed as well as many added innovations.