The Traders Advocacy Group Ghana (TAGG) has called on President Akufo-Addo to set up a committee to convene a stakeholder engagement to discuss issues of task force at the Tema and Takoradi harbours.
Despite the paperless system, which removes the human interface when transacting business at our various ports, TAGG says traders are harassed and extorted after clearing their containers from the port.
In a statement, TAGG accused the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) of deploring various forms of intimidation in the name of generating revenue for government.
“Fellow Ghanaians, in as much as we appreciate the efforts of this government, the GRA Customs and Domestic Division under the Ministry of Finance has established several task forces under the directives of the Commissioner General in the name of enforcement.
We believe that these initiatives will not achieve their intended goals but instead encourage extortion of money from traders to enrich themselves in the name of alleged port intrusion of duties and tax invasion, which is untrue but is designed to intimidate those who are currently struggling to stay in business,” the statement read in parts.
TAGG noted that, they are now getting over the impact of COVID-19 pandemic but GRA Commissioner General, as well as the Customs Commissioner are rather frustrating them.
They have warned of price hikes as a result of GRA and Customs negligence and ineptitude.
“We would like to warn this government to stop trying to kill businesses in an effort to jumpstart the economy because it appears that Ghana is falling behind its neighbours and is having trouble filling our ports with cargo, while our neighbours have been obviously experiencing an overflow of cargo as a result of flexible import duties of global trade at their ports,” the statement cautioned.
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Read the full statement below: