Temporary vehicle importation system being abused

Upper West Region Commander of Customs Division, Ghana Revenue Authority, Henry Ayinemi Atampugbire, has expressed worry over wanton abuse of Temporary Vehicle Importation (TVI) system leading to mass revenue leakages.

The TVI system permits motor vehicles to be imported temporarily into the country without payment of Import Duty and other Customs taxes and later re-exported.

He said such vehicles were free of duty since they must be re-exported within three months of their first importation, either in the same state or after having undergone specified processes or repairs.

Mr Atampugbire was speaking during a sensitization seminar on Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding (HS code) in Wa.

He explained that while in Ghana, the vehicle must not be offered for sale, lent, pledged, hired, driven away, exchanged or otherwise disposed of, and must not be used for the purpose of picking up passengers or conveying goods to another place.

But, Mr Atampugbire said, the system, which was introduced under ECOWAS and other international conventions to facilitate free movements of goods and persons among member countries have been abused consistently.

He said some unscrupulous people sold those vehicles to unsuspecting Ghanaians, “particularly in Kumasi which is the centre of all such fictitious things.”

The Commander therefore advised the public who wanted to buy vehicles to initially visit any customs office to verify the authenticity of vehicles before buying it.

“As I am speaking, we have impounded two of such vehicles and it is in our compound,” he said, adding that, several of those vehicles were auctioned to the public, last year.

The TVI is one of the international conventions to facilitate movement of goods and people, of which Ghana is a signatory.

However, the Customs face the challenge of how to effectively monitor and control the temporary importation of vehicles into Ghana across land borders.

Officials say the system abuse is as a result of lack of structural system of reconciliation of vehicles entering and leaving Ghana, which poses risks of revenue leakage through non re-export of such vehicles.