The Chairman of the Chamber of Oil Marketing Companies (COMAC), Gabriel Kumi, has urged the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to enhance the efficiency of the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS) to minimize challenges faced by its members when making payments at the ports.
Speaking at the recent Downstream Petroleum Dialogue organized by COMAC, Mr. Kumi stressed that while the chamber supports an effective tax collection system, it will not tolerate disruptions such as system failures that negatively impact business operations.
“We don’t have any problem if the system is making tax collection efficient…we support all that. But at the end of the day, we expect our members to have a trouble-free experience, with no bottlenecks in placing orders,” he stated.
ICUMS is a customs management and port community platform designed to process documents and payments through a single window, replacing multiple vendors with a single service provider.
Mr. Kumi cautioned that persistent technical challenges could lead to frustration among industry players.
“The system should not be implemented in a way that negatively affects our operations. That’s all we are saying. We are calling on the GRA and the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority to resolve any bottlenecks permanently. We have tolerated these hiccups for the past year, but going forward, we may not have the patience to continue tolerating them,” he warned.
In 2020, the GRA announced that all transactions related to import and export manifests must be processed through either ICUMS or the Ghana Customs Management System at the Port of Tema and all other entry points.
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