Prime News Ghana

Gov't ask CEPS to pull down barriers

By Jeffrey Owusu-Mensah
Filephoto: CEPS officers
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The Customs and Excise Preventive Service (CEPS) division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) will from September 1, 2017 remove all of its road barriers.

This follows a directive from government as part of a three-phase policy to attract more business to country's ports.

The CEPS has relied on such barriers largely to check vehicles for smuggled goods but there have been concerns over the years with many complaining of harassments and extortions.

Such concerns have been deemed as a disincentive to the country's efforts to position itself as the import and export hub for the West African sub-region, especially for the many landlocked countries.

Speaking at a one-day conference on Efficiency at the Ports, Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia who announced the directive stated that since "we are competing with countries close by like Cote d'Ivoire, Togo and so on we should be a little more proactive".

In this regard, the government is planning to put in place a system which will rely on less paperwork and consolidate inspections at the port by GCNet and West Blue.

"We need a lot of coordination among our agents. GCNet said they have a single window. West Blue also say they have a single window. That makes it two single windows so in practice, we have a double window. We have to look at automation", he said.

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