CEPS not happy with activities of pre-shipment agencies.

The Customs Excise and Preventive Service, CEPS has voiced its displeasure at what it sees as an encroachment on its traditional valuation functions by the pre-shipment agencies. This situation, according to the Commissioner of Customer, Dr Charles Asembri has been compounded, because valuation constitutes a weak point in customs operations in Ghana. In an interview with JOY FM today, the deputy Commissioner of CEPS, MR. Samson Hammond said pre-shipment inspection forms part of the functions of customs. He revealed that most of the problems confronting CEPS is lack of equipment and information to enforce the GATT/WTO agreement. On the reported duplication of functions by the pre-shipment agencies and CEPS, Mr. Hammond said the primary aim of CEPS is to collect revenue for the state adding that CEPS cannot depend only on data from the pre-shipment agencies to determine the value of these goods. Mr. Hammond explained that goods necessarily have to be re-checked but assured importers that the 100 per cent stripping of containers would be stopped as soon the facilities for the usage of alternative methods come in handy.

The Customs Excise and Preventive Service, CEPS has voiced its displeasure at what it sees as an encroachment on its traditional valuation functions by the pre-shipment agencies. This situation, according to the Commissioner of Customer, Dr Charles Asembri has been compounded, because valuation constitutes a weak point in customs operations in Ghana. In an interview with JOY FM today, the deputy Commissioner of CEPS, MR. Samson Hammond said pre-shipment inspection forms part of the functions of customs. He revealed that most of the problems confronting CEPS is lack of equipment and information to enforce the GATT/WTO agreement. On the reported duplication of functions by the pre-shipment agencies and CEPS, Mr. Hammond said the primary aim of CEPS is to collect revenue for the state adding that CEPS cannot depend only on data from the pre-shipment agencies to determine the value of these goods. Mr. Hammond explained that goods necessarily have to be re-checked but assured importers that the 100 per cent stripping of containers would be stopped as soon the facilities for the usage of alternative methods come in handy.