We are warning you to stop trying to kill businesses – TAGG to GRA officials

The Traders Advocacy Group Ghana (TAGG) has asked the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority to stop “harassing” their members.

According to the group, their traders are being made to pay exorbitant fees after clearing their containers at the Tema and Takoradi ports.

In a press statement signed by the President of TAGG, on September 18, 2023, it noted that the GRA officials were using the institution of various taskforces to extort its members.

“Realising the benefits of the paperless policy for Ghana's economy and for traders and importers specifically, we accepted the GRA's offer to take part in a stakeholder discussion over the implementation of the paperless clearing system at the ports of Tema and Takoradi, which we explained to our traders that in order to protect Ghana's economic development traders should embrace the processes that will remove human interface when transacting business at our various port," the statement read.

“However, our traders have been harassed and made to pay money to Customs and DTRD task force that uses the ignorance of traders and importers to extort money from them after clearing their containers from the port,” it added.

TAGG further added “We would like to warn this government to stop trying to kill businesses in an effort to jumpstart the economy because it appears that Ghana is falling behind its neighbors and is having trouble filling our ports with cargo, while our neighbors have been obviously experiencing an overflow of cargo as a result of flexible import duties of global trade at their ports.”

Meanwhile, the call by TAGG comes after the Ghana Union of Traders Association issued a similar warning asking the GRA's task force in the Ashanti region to stop harassing its members.

SSD/MA

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