The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), says effective November 1 this year (2018), a new customs bonded warehousing regime will become operational in the country, during which some goods cannot be warehoused.
The items that cannot be warehoused under the new system include ethanol, lead acid batteries, tinned tomatoes, cement, chalk, paint, lime, canned drinks, canned fish and cooking oil.
In an interview on the warehousing regime, a Principal Revenue Officer of the Customs Division of the GRA at the Kotoka International Airport, Ernest Appiah Boakye, explained that the new warehousing system is an internal customs regime which allows mostly imported, and some locally manufactured goods, to be locked up, kept and stored in a secure private customs bonded warehouse.
He said when in the bonded warehouse, duties and taxes will be deferred until the release of the goods from the warehouse.
According to him, that means when an importer brings in goods and realises that the duty to be paid is so much that it cannot not be raised up-front, the importer can apply for warehousing, such that the goods would be moved from the ports into a bonded warehouse.
