The Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) has rejected the accusations for the reported high port charges at the ports.
According to its Director General, Michael Luguji, his outfit only charges about 10% of the total fees and levies at the ports.
Speaking to the Minister of Finance, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam and his entourage at a meeting, Mr. Luguji called for a comprehensive assessment and review of the port clearing system to reduce the burden on importers.
“Whenever a typical invoice is raised from the port, then the agency that comes to mind is the GPHA which everyone knows as the Authority that handles port stuff. However, when you study the invoice carefully, there are custom duties, levies, and other government agency charges which cannot be attributed to GPHA in any way”.
“Counting the number of levies and taxes, I can see about 22 government taxes or levies on the invoice of an importer and this is a challenge because we did a research which indicates that our contribution to that entire cost of clearing is less than 10%”, he added.
The visit by the Finance Minister and some officials from the Ministry was aimed at providing first-hand information on the operations of the ports.
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