Ghana Revenue Authority wages war on un-customed vehicles

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) says it would go all out to impound the many vehicles in the country for which the owners had failed to pay the appropriate import duties in violation of the law.

At a press conference in Accra on Thursday, the GRA said it had seized 100 of such vehicles and the owners were in the process of paying the duties on them.

Mr Emmanuel Kofi Nti, the Commissioner-General of the GRA, said the vehicles were seized through the efforts of Special Surveillance and Monitoring Unit set up by the Minister of Finance.

Some of these vehicles, he said, came from countries in the sub-region, which under the ECOWAS protocols could spend up to 90 days in Ghana but the owners ended up having them registered thereby avoiding the payment of import duties.

He therefore cautioned members of the public to verify the status of any vehicle they intend to buy with the Customs Division of the GRA before procuring them.

Mr Nti said under the Customs Act, 2016, Act 891 importers of vehicles into the country were mandated to pay import duties and any other inputs, which means that the owners of the ‘un-customed’ vehicles had violated the law.

“Those who have vehicles in the country and are using the vehicles, supposedly with registered numbers, and have not paid the duties on them have violated the law," he added.

Mr Nti said intelligence gathered by the Special Surveillance and Monitoring Unit showed that there were many more ‘un-customed’ vehicles in the country.

He called on all owners of such vehicles to regularise the status of their vehicles with the Customs Division of the GRA.

“GRA is serving notice to the general public to ensure that all vehicles that they own have had their duties duly paid,” he added