Finance Ministry bemoans poor rate of revenue collection by Customs

A deputy Finance Minister and Member of Parliament for Oboasi, Kwaku Kwarten has bemoaned the poor rate of revenue collection on the part of Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority which has led to a continues decline of revenue target for the past three years.

Speaking at a day Seminar organized by the Maritime Courier publications, the Deputy Finance Minister in a speech read on his behalf cited that as at August, 2018, Customs revenue was short by 17%, a development that will deny Government income for national development.

“As of August customs revenue was short by 17%. So if compliance levels will come up even like 5 or10% more, we will be able to reach our revenue targets,” he said.

Out of about 4.5billion debt stock accrued by the Ghana Revenue Authority, nearly 80% of that is Customs related. This is because people are abusing a lot of the suspense regimes, warehousing, Transit and so on.

He advanced that, it is for these reasons that electronic systems need to be applied to recoup monies due to the state.

“And all these things are happening and there is a lot of proof to show that it is happening. And so the issue is that, yes, there is a lot on manpower in the GRA but it is not enough to monitor all these things manually. So then it means the electronic systems would have to come into place,” he said.

Importers and exporters were advised to take advantage of the electronic systems of doing business at the ports to clear cargo in time to avoid demurrage, rent and detention.