GRA-Customs Division vows to clampdown diversion of transit cargo

The Customs division of the Ghana Revenue Authority has vowed to clamp down on the diversion of transit cargo in the country.

At a stakeholder engagement on securities of transit cargo in Tema, the Acting Deputy Commissioner of the suspense regime, Fletching Akoto said the country loses a lot of revenue as a result of the diversion of cargo, hence, the need for all stakeholders to be involved to nib the practice in the bud.

“They (clearing agents) all agree that there is cargo diversion but majority of them are compliant. I mentioned that diversion is not good for us, it costs us a lot. Our objective is to make sure that we root out diversion completely,” he stated.

The stakeholder engagement was meant to discuss the issue of overloading and over gauge or over height of transit vehicles, shedding of overloaded transit vehicle resulting in malfeasance, weight declaration on transit trucks by agents at transit terminal, containerization of higher risk goods, monitoring of transit goods along the corridors to the exit points and introduction of SIGMAT to strengthen transit goods.

The event was also used to solicit the challenges transistors face in transporting their goods from the ports to their final destination.

The Regional Maintenance Manager of the Ghana Highways Authority for Oti region, Albert Annan called on truck drivers to desist from overloading.

“Our main objective is to make sure that there is no overloading on the road network. When they are not overloaded, all of us will be safe on our road, the more you overload the more you reduce the lifespan of the road infrastructure and the more you overload, the more we spend more money on maintenance,” he stated.

The deputy Operations Manager at Ghana Link, Emmanuel Kuagbelah said the training will go a long way to facilitate the clearance of transit goods at the ports of Ghana.

“Because of the education that they have had, as to the number of days that you can spend on the road and the reasons you should not spend much time on the road is to enable the providers of the tracking device get enough stock to present to others who need them,” he said.

The Transit Manager at the Port of Tema, David Songotu called on all stakeholders to collaborate in ensuring that the transit trade rakes in the needed revenue.

“It is very important that we encourage the trade, because we have over 2000 people working in this trade, hence, earning their livelihood,” he revealed.