Importers rush for their cars seized at Tema Port

Owners of 540 over aged vehicles confiscated at the Tema Port have begun processing documents for the release of the cars following a new Act of Parliament granting a concession to importers.

The vehicles were confiscated to the State by the Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) under Act 522 of 1998, which banned the importation of vehicles of 10 years old and above.

Last week CEPS issued notice to all importers to take advantage of the concession which expires on May 31, this year, to clear their vehicles and that any car which was not cleared after that date, shall be confiscated to the State.

Miss Monica Acquah, Public Relations Officer of CEPS at the Collection Unit in Tema, said the vehicles are to be released under the Customs and Excise Concession on Over-aged Vehicles, (Act 598), passed by Parliament on April six, this year.

She said the owners are required to pay one million cedis as penalty for cars with 1900 CC or below and three million cedis for those over 1900 CC and commercial vehicles.

Importers will in addition, pay import duty and other taxes to be determined by the CEPS.

Miss Acquah said the import duty ranges between five to 20 percent of the Home Delivery Value (HDV) depending on the cubic capacity of the vehicle, and added that this will go up due to depreciation of the Cedi since 1998.