Participants at the GRA workshop
THE GHANA Revenue Authority (GRA) has reacted to concerns raised by policy think-tank IMANI Ghana on grounds that the implementation of the UNI-PASS deal by government could attract some judgment debt someday.
The concern, raised in a letter written to the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, asked government to reconsider the UNI-PASS deal which was expected to be implemented this year.
However, Deputy Commissioner at the Custom Division of GRA, Mate Kodjo, who addressed the media in Accra yesterday on the benefits and operations of the UNI-PASS system, indicated that the development would not spark any judgment debt issues.
He stated, “Please, rest assured that there won’t be any judgment debt under this contract (UNI-PASS deal).”
He further stressed, “From our (GRA) angle, I don’t think there will be payment of any judgment debt.”
“The fact that you are providing something and I want somebody else with a superior service to add to vary or complement yours does not give you the right to ask for judgment debt.”
He said it was not government’s intention to collapse any business but rather to improve the system.
Messrs Ghana Link Network Services Limited recently announced its readiness to launch UNI-PASS, deemed to be a total customs administration solution for Ghana, in February this year.
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.
UNI-PASS 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 projected to rake in more revenue for the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).
When the UNI-PASS Deal takes off finally, the current systems operated by GCNet and West Blue would 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.
Imani Ghana, speaking against the termination of the contract by government of the soon-to-phase out operators, has criticized government “for simply cancelling their more reliable, tested, and efficient less expensive systems.”
BY Melvin Tarlue