‘56% port revenue hike not due to paperless sys’

Claims by Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia that revenue collected at the ports has increased by 56% due to the introduction of the paperless system are deceptive, the Executive Secretary of the Importers and Exporters Association of Ghana, Sampson Asaaki Awingobit, has said.

Dr Bawumia has said: “The results are amazing. We just looked at data this morning – first week of collections under the paperless system in September this year compared to last year’s first week of collections in September 2016 – and collections have gone up by 56 per cent, from around GHS130 million to GHS230 million in one week.”

He said some people who have been profiteering from intentional delays in clearing goods at the ports attempted sabotaging the new paperless system introduced at Tema to help clear goods in four hours.

“On September 1, we launched the paperless [system], but, of course, not without attempts to actually derail the process because it’s hurting a lot of people who were making free money and people who used to take two weeks to clear a container after one day of delay, were protesting,” Dr Bawumia said at an orientation ceremony for national service personnel at the National Communications Authority.

But Mr Awingobit, while speaking at a GIFF press conference in Tema said: “It is unfortunate the Vice President is trying to compare revenue from an election free year with that of an election year.

“What happens is that during the electioneering season, imports decline and businesses tend to be very slow so for the Vice President to say, the one-week existence of the paperless [system] has actually increased the revenue at the port is highly untrue.”

He noted that: “The Vice President should have also known that due to the migration from a paper regime to a paperless one, most clearing agents prior to the implementation of the new policy, entered loads of declarations which are yet to be cleared from the port which also accounted for the rise in revenue.

“There are several declarations that are yet to be cleared from the system even though the duties have been paid. The containers are still at the port un-cleared despite having paid duty. Those are backlogs and government must be worried.”

Source: Ghana/ClassFMonline.com