40,000 vehicles escape payment of customs duty

Accra, Sept. 6, GNA - No customs duties were paid on about 40,000 vehicles to the Customs Excise and Preventive Service for the past two years, an investigator, Mr. Kwabena Ahenkorah said on Thursday in Accra.

He expressed worry about the huge loss of revenue to the state at the tax evasion, and said the leakage was coming from some officials of the CEPS and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA). Mr. Ahenkora made the revelation when he was cross-examining a customs officer, Mr. Adu Poku, at the Justice Glenn Baddoo Committee sitting in Accra on Thursday.

He said he would give detailed evidence on the matter later. The investigator said some officials of the CEPS and the VELD used the paid duties of vehicles of already registered vehicles to register new ones.

In that instance, the officials collect data from the Ghana Community Networks computer monitoring system for vehicles whose customs duties had already been paid to satisfy the duty payment requirement for registering new vehicles.

In some cases, payment for a bicycle, motorbikes and fishing nets had been used for vehicles that would have attracted higher duties when in reality nothing was paid for them.

Mr Ahenkora was at the committee's sitting to cross-examine Mr Adu Poku, a member of the container examination team at the Tema Port He accused the auction team at the Tema Port for disorderly organizing auctions, saying the team arrived late in the afternoon rather in the morning; hastily auctioned two out of a number of containers a day and reserved the rest for another day when more than two could be auctioned in a day.

He said that was adding to the congestion at the port. Mr. Ahenkorah further alleged that the auctioneers accused him and his team of interfering in their work, and caused the police to arrest and detain them for eight hours at the Port Railways Police Station. Mr Ahenkorah had also prayed the Committee to invite the auction team to explain the whereabouts of 109 containers, on whose auction the Minister of Finance placed an embargo, but which later vanished from the port after November 2005.

Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Finance Minister of Finance and Economic Planning in July inaugurated the four-member committee to investigate allegations of operational malpractices at CEPS to establish administrative actions against culpable personnel and identify management weaknesses in dealing expeditiously with disciplinary matters.

It is reviewing the systems, procedures, processes, rules and regulations of CEPS in relation to its auction procedures to recommend specific actions or alternatives of disposing of seized goods. The committee would also examine the role of clearing agents, auctioneers and other related matters.