Import duty at the port has been the same since 2016-Minister

The Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Carlos Ahenkora says import duty at the port has been the same since 2016.

According to Carlos Ahenkora, the NPP government has not increased the import duties but rather inherited the Ecowas Common External Tariff which put their administration in a very bad position.

Some trade association at the port have complained about the increasingly high cost of doing business at the port.

Trade associations like Ghana Union of Trade Association, GUTA, has warned government that the cost of goods on the market will increase further if nothing is done about the situation.

They indicated that a reduction on import duty will help more local businesses as the high cost of import duty is forcing most them to fold up.

The International Chamber of Commerce Ghana, ICC Ghana, has also identified the charging of illegal fees at the port as an obstacle to the Trade Facilitation Agreement with Ghana.

They attributed the high cost of doing business at port to illegal fees being charged by some workers and called on government to do more to harmonise all laws establishing institutions in the country to avoid duplication despite the implementation of the paperless port system and single window system by government to meet the terms of the Trade Facilitation Agreement.

Read also: The high cost of doing business at the port due to illegal fees-ICC Ghana

But the sector minister said government has rather made the means of revenue collection at the port more efficient and the import duty has not been increased.

“Government has not increased import duties, government only made the collection of import duties efficient and by so I want to say that the rate of duty that we came to meet is what we are still collecting”.

Related: Reduce import duty to help local businesses grow: GUTA to gov’t

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