Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has tasked the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to reduce physical examination of containers at the ports from the current 90% to 10% to make Ghana’s business environment competitive.
He said this could be achieved through the use of scanners and risk engines to reduce the cost of doing business.
He added that this will, aid in improving Ghana’s global ranking in the ease of doing business from the 114th position further downwards.
Dr. Bawumia gave the directive at a stakeholders meeting in Accra , which aimed at engaging and creating awareness within the private sector.
He noted that the un-stuffing and re-stuffing of containers at the ports, which does not bring much revenue to the government, is unnecessary, saying that in international best practices, only 2% of containers undergo physically examination.
He explained that it does not make sense for the nation to earn only 0.38% revenue from physical examination of containers, while on the other hand applying risk engines and scanners can improve Ghana’s business environment, increase revenue and trade volumes to the ports.
