World Customs Day marked in Accra
By Selorm GBORBIDZI, Accra
The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, has urged the Management of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to emulate the steps being taken by its parent agency, the Ghana Revenue Authority, to become a more customer-friendly institution.
“It is through effective cooperation with mutual respect among partner agencies that we can create a secure and conducive environment for the legitimate movement of goods across borders.”
“It is important that Customs and its partners continue to develop and implement proactive information exchange programmes to enhance their level of efficiency.”
Addressing the Management of the Customs Division of the GRA at an event to mark this year’s commemoration of World Customs Day, Ofori-Atta, who was represented by the Director of Revenue Policy at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, George Winful, advised Customs to build more partnerships with their sister security agencies in order to effectively carry out their mandate.
He reminded them of the revenue target of GH¢41.5 billion set for them under the Medium Term Revenue Strategy.
To achieve this set target, he assured them that interagency cooperation would enable them to scale the seemingly high hurdle.
The Trade Minister, Kobina Tahir Hammond, in a message read on his behalf, tasked the Customs Division to build a relationship with the trading public that clearly outlines the balance between revenue and trade facilitation.
He also advised Customs to keep international operations standards in mind, even as it strives to improve on its local operations.
He said, “the unique thing about trading is that you cannot trade only with yourself. You trade with partners.”
The Commissioner General of Ghana Revenue Authority, Reverend Dr Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah, in a speech read on his behalf by Deputy Commissioner of Customs, Daniel Abisi, underscored the need for quality and dynamic customer service delivery.
He noted that the GRA has had to adopt new technologies to enable it to deliver more efficiently as the tax net has widened.
He also revealed that the Customs division through its partnerships with sister agencies in the sub-region is able to share information and also more accurately track the movement of transit goods to enable them to deal more fairly with importers.
This has reduced, and in some cases solved some of the challenges involved in transit good diversion.
