The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) monitoring team has recovered more than ¢85 million revenue shortfall from businesses for the state within the first five months of 2023.
The aggressiveness of the monitoring team divided into groups significantly impacted revenue mobilisation between October 2022 and February 2023.
Four teams were inaugurated in October 2022 to undertake risk-based and intelligence driven operations across the country.
The teams which are grouped as Tema, Eastern Frontier based at Dabala, Western Frontier based in Kumasi and Vehicle Taskforce which operates nationwide have also arrested some unaccustomed goods. They also carried out other related assignments which involves the interception of substances suspected to be Indian hemp, among others.
Speaking to journalists about the development, Commissioner of Customs, Alhaji Seidu Iddrisu Iddisah, cautioned that the team will not compromise on any unethical exercise by any importer or trader against the country’s customs laws.
According to him, the recoveries made by the team will go a long way to impact on the the revenue drive of the state as well as ensuring that security of the country is intact.
“As you know, Customs is supposed to be at all the entry points to ensure that goods that come into the country meet the security and health needs of the people; and the country has laws to deal with the importation of items as well as the payment of right duties to the state which is used as an economic tool”.
“We have layers of enforcement and one of them is the establishment of the monitoring teams that operates at certain strategic areas to ensure that if one is able to dodge from the entry points, these teams will be able to apprehend them for the right amount of duties and customs processes to be done”, he added.
On the concerns of some team members harassing innocent traders at some country’s borders, the Commissioner admitted that such complaints have been made in the public domain but without any concrete evidence.
“We have always encouraged people to come out with evidence of our team members harassing individuals or any form of corruption so that we can investigate and deal with the officers involved.”, he mentioned.
“We have code of ethics and conducts. When it is breached, the necessary sanctions are applied accordingly” he asserted.
The authority advised the general public to cooperate with the monitoring teams, assuring that that the teams will discharge their duties with the highest professional standards.
The Western Frontier Team has also recovered a total short collection of ₵1,466,797.57.
Again, the Vehicle Taskforce (Nationwide) intercepted and detained 193 unaccustomed vehicles in the last quarter of 2022 and 80 vehicles between January and February 2023.