Wa, Dec 21, - Mr Henry Ayinemi
Atampugbire, the Upper West Region Commander of Customs Division, Ghana Revenue
Authority, has expressed worry over wanton abuse of Temporary Vehicle
Importation (TVI) system leading to mass revenue leakages.
The TVI system permits motor
vehicles to be imported temporarily into the country without payment of Import
Duty and other Customs taxes and later re-exported.
He said such vehicles were free
of duty since they must be re-exported within three months of their first
importation, either in the same state or after having undergone specified
process or repairs.
Mr Atampugbire was speaking
during a sensitization seminar on Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding
(HS code) in Wa.
He explained that while in Ghana,
the vehicle must not be offered for sale, lent, pledged, hired, driven away,
exchanged or otherwise disposed of, and must not be used for the purpose of
picking up passengers or conveying goods to another place.
But, Mr Atampugbire said, the
system, which was introduced under ECOWAS and other international conventions
to facilitate free movements of goods and persons among member countries have
been abused consistently.
He said some unscrupulous people
sold those vehicles to unsuspecting Ghanaians, “particularly in Kumasi which is
the centre of all such fictitious things.”
The Commander therefore advised
the public who wanted to buy vehicles to initially visit any customs office to
verify the authenticity of vehicles before buying it.
“As I am speaking, we have
impounded two of such vehicles and it is in our compound,” he said, adding
that, several of those vehicles were auctioned to the public, last year.
The TVI is one of the
international conventions to facilitate movement of goods and people, of which
Ghana is signatory to.
However, the Customs face the
challenge of how to effectively monitor and control the temporary importation
of vehicles into Ghana across land borders.
Officials say the system abuse is
as a result of lack of structural system of reconciliation of vehicles entering
and leaving Ghana, which poses risks of revenue leakage through non re-export
of such vehicles.
Mr Kenneth Baye, Principle
Revenue Officer of Customs Division of GRA, Tema Collection, who was one of the
resource persons, said the HS Code had gone through several changes for
application next year.
He attributed the change to
technological progress, international trade patterns and adaptation of
nomenclature to reflect trade patterns, as well as reinforce the multipurpose
nature of the nomenclature.
He advised stakeholders to grasp
details of the amendments and reasons for them in the 2017 version for
effective use in the ensuing year.
Another resource person, Mr
Richard Quayson at the Tema Boarding, called on law enforcement agencies to
make the ECOWAS principle on free movements of goods and people work.
He said leaders and security
agencies should ensure the rules were applied to ensure ECOWAS member countries
moved from customs union to the market stage.
International trade involves the
movement of goods across national frontiers which require procedures expressed
in national legislations and implemented by Customs.
GNA
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