Don’t increase port charges in 2021 – Importers and Exporters appeals to govt

The Importers and Exporters Association of Ghana has appealed to government not to increase port clearance charges in 2021.

Mr. Samson Awingobit Asaki, Executive Secretary, Importers, and Exporters Association of Ghana, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said: “we don’t want to see additional charges or any new taxes, we want a reduction rather”.

Mr. Asaki said, with Accra becoming a commercial center due to the location of the secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), they are expecting to see more cargo passing through the country’s ports hence the need to maintain existing port charges to attract more vessels.

On the impact of the introduction of the Integrated Customs Management Systems (ICUMS) and the paperless system on goods clearance, he said tremendous improvements have been witnessed in the clearance of goods especially in 2020 after the introduction of ICUM.

He indicated that because the new system processes documents and payments through a single window, it makes clearing of goods faster.

He added that with the new system, importers can easily check from the system where their cargo had reached as well as the processes it had gone through without the help of the agent by simply putting in the Bill of Entry (BOE) code which ensuress transparency.