Franklin Cudjoe
Policy think tank, Imane Ghana, has urged the Akufo-Addo government to ‘reconsider’ the UNIPASS port deal before its implementation.
The appeal comes as Messrs Ghana Link Network Services Limited announced its readiness to launch UNIPASS, which is deemed to be a total customs administration solution for Ghana, commencing this month.
The solution, developed by Customs UNIPASS International Agency (CUPIA) of South Korea Customs Services, is expected to also act as a trade facilitation tool that would be deployed at the country’s ports as the national Single Window System for revenue.
UNIPASS is considered an end-to-end system that will not allow anyone to tamper with figures on it as was the case with the previous systems.
It is being projected to rake in more revenue for the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).
When the UNIPASS Deal takes off finally, the current systems operated by GCNet and West Blue will phase out.
The UNIPASS system is an automatically paperless solution, and fits into Vice-President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s digitisation agenda for the Ghanaian economy.
However, Imane Ghana is claiming that implementing the UNI-PASS deal will be ‘a wrong move’ for the country.
In a letter by the leader of Imane Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe, addressed to the Minister of Trade and Industry was titled, “Why government must reconsider its decision on the controversial UNIPASS customs and ports technology.”
Imane Ghana observed that the business reform agenda of the current government has been noteworthy, saying “nowhere has this been felt more than at our ports.”
The letter added that the paperless system at the ports had not only resulted in increased revenues for the state ( 15% more in 2019 over 2018 proceeds, from GRA records, even after reducing benchmark values of 35% for imported vehicles and 50% on general goods), it had projected Ghana as a major facilitator of trade in the sub-region.
The letter indicated that sustaining this impressive record, however, requires policy predictability and coherence in the dispensation of regulatory mandates of the Ministries of Trade and Finance.
Imane claimed that the UNIPASS deal is ‘untested’ and ‘expensive’ and could roll back the progress made so far.
“This expectation remains doubtful as the two ministries are bent on replacing the more reliable customs and ports technologies (GCNet and West Blue) with a more expensive and untested ports valuation system called UNIPASS,” it observed.
Imani Ghana said they still stand by their appeal to the Economic Management Team (EMT) to examine the implications for adopting UNIPASS on the turnaround times and the costs to users and the government.
BY Melvin Tarlue