The Deputy Minister of Trade, Carlos Ahenkorah’s attempt to discredit achievement so far of the national single window and the ongoing paperless port policy by the vice president at the ports has been exposed.
According to available data from the Customs Division of GRA revenue collected at the country’s ports increased drastically in 2017.
In 2017, the Customs Division of GRA collected GHc11.435 billion reflecting a growth of 27.6 percent from GHc8.961 billion in 2016.
The revenue growth was as a result of the national single window operations at the ports and the ongoing paperless port policy by the vice president.
The single window system has also ensured ease of doing business resulting in increase in trade volumes as well.
The Customs Division is also on course of achieving almost 30 percent growth in revenue collection by the end of the year 2018.
So far, the Division in four months of 2018 has collected GHc3.590 billion as against 3.214 billion in 2017, representing 11.7 percent increase.
GIFF at a press conference in Accra a couple of days ago, described the Ministry of Trade’s attempts to replace the existing system with UNIPASS as “impracticable, unwise, chaotic and suicidal.”
Kwabena Ofosu Appiah, President of GIFF who read the statement on behalf of the organization said. “In the wake of the rigorous review on the Paperless Port System, spear headed by no mean a person but the Vice President of the land, we suddenly hear of the UNIPASS system announced by the Ministry of Trade to replace the existing workable solutions on the ground.
“The trajectory on which we are riding is not only chaotic but suicidal. We have travelled on this journey before and have learnt our lessons as a country and for that matter we don’t need to repeat the errors of old. This is why it was very unfortunate for the Ministry of Trade to have announced the replacement of GCNET and WestBlue Systems with no justification”.
According to GIFF, the processing fee for the proposed UNIPASS system will be 0.75% of Free on Board (FOB).
This is higher than the combined fee of GCNET (0.40% of FOB) and WestBlue (0.28% of CIF) which sums up to 0.68% in simplistic terms.
“It is important to reemphasize that government receives 35% out of the 0.40% fee of GCNET. So, in real terms, GCNET receives 0.26% (0.40% less 35%). This brings down the total of 0.68% to 0.54% (GCNET 0.26% + WestBlue 0.28).
These are the bear facts and as such government will have to choose between UNIPASS fee of 0.75% and the existing fee of 0.54%”, he said.
“It is important for the Ministry of Trade to understand the strategic role of the port and its impact on GDP and the economy at large and for which reason they have to go back to the drawing board and rethink carefully before bringing any such intervention.
“It should be noted that any such intervention should be driven strategically by evidential data suggesting a justifiable reason for take over.
“It should be noted that any such intervention should be driven strategically by evidential data suggesting a justifiable reason for take over.
“What we have on the ground is a work in progress and challenges identified are being fixed and therefore any attempt to replace the system will be akin to reinventing the wheel. We don’t need UNIPASS”, GIFF president said.
