79 smuggled vehicles in Brong-Ahafo impounded

The Brong-Ahafo Regional Command of Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has impounded 79 smuggled vehicles in the Region.

Mr. Seth Tetteh, Collector at the Patrol unit of the Command who announced this at Abesim on Thursday, said preliminary investigations indicated that the vehicles were smuggled into the country and most of them had been fraudulently registered.

Speaking at a Tax Seminar organised by the Division for importers, traders, manufacturers and journalist, Mr. Tetteh said import duties on the vehicles amounted to millions of Ghana cedis.

On the theme: “Customs Suspense Regimes” Mr. Tetteh explained that the vehicles were due for auction as most of the owners had failed to pay the penalties on them.

He said it was disheartening that some unscrupulous vehicle syndicates capitalized on the ignorance of innocent buyers and sold out those smuggled vehicles to them at low prices.

Mr. Tetteh advised importers to present their vehicles together with the relevant documents to the Customs Division when registering them and entreated prospective buyers to approach the Division for advice.

He said it was appropriate that vehicle buyers always checked the chassis or vehicle identification number to see if they had been tampered with.

Mr. Robert Mensah, Chief Collector in-charge of Client Services at the Division, commended informants for their numerous contributions to the fight against smuggled goods.

He said Ghana lost huge sums of revenue annually due to smuggling and entreated the general public to continue in lending their support in the fight.

Mr. Mensah observed that recent findings showed fake vehicle syndicates who smuggled them into the country also found fraudulent means to register them to evade import duties.

Mr Francis Ntiamoah, of the Research and Monitoring and Mr Theophilus Adamah, Collector Free Zone and Export at the Division, took the participants through export free zone activities and the transit trade.