Kofi Nti
A delegation from Denmark consisting of members of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Development Cooperation and Ministry of Taxation, has paid a visit to the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).
They were hosted by the Commissioner General of the Ghana Revenue Authority, Emmanuel Kofi Nti, who briefed the delegation on contemporary developments in the Ghana tax system.
He said the Ghana Revenue Authority is putting measures in place to match the needs of the current atmosphere of trade facilitation while generating revenue for the state.
“I.T. system doesn’t come that easy and we have had issues with integrity and that is something we are working hard at. And one of the major reasons for the Vice President coming up with the issue of the paperless is to minimize the face to face contact between the importer and the customs work so that once you minimize that you are able to reduce the challenges that come that way,” he said.
The Minister of Development Cooperation of Denmark, Ulla Tørnæs, said that notwithstanding the long-term relationship between the two countries, the area of tax revenue is a new area Denmark is looking to explore in partnership with Ghana.
She expressed the belief that the new initiatives to digitize customs procedures in Ghana will help minimize corruption.
“Customs is an area that traditionally has been exposed to corruption and hopefully ICT and digitization will avoid and minimize corruption,” she opined.
The Sector Commander of Customs for Tema, Dr Okoe Appiah, also emphasized that so far the paperless system has been very effective in both trade facilitation and revenue generation for the state.
He added that in this paperless regime, release time for duty has reduced by at least 40%.
“By the introduction of the paperless, now we can see the essence of trade facilitation is clear, the port clearance time has reduced especially when we come to the customs processing part of it and also in terms of revenue generation,” he said.