GRA postpones implementation of benchmark values reversal to January 6

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), has suspended the implementation of the reversal of the benchmark values to Thursday, January 6, 2022.

According to a statement issued, this is to allow importers who got their duty bill before the initial implementation date of January 4, 2022, to pay and clear their goods.

The GRA’s decision comes on the back of complaints by members of the Importers and Exporters Association of Ghana (IEAG) about the fact that the new decision was being implemented with retrospective effect.

The IEAG in a statement on Tuesday, January 4, 2022, expressed their displeasure at the conduct of business at some ports of entry pursuant to the government's implementation of the reversal of the 50% benchmark values.

IEAG opined that importers and clearing agencies whose Bill of Entry (BOE) were entered and duly accepted by the ICUMS platform in the last working days of 2021, have been denied access to clear their cargoes from the ports.

Such importers and clearing agents, according to IEAG, are “regrettably” being asked to re-enter their various BOEs for new values to be charged on their cargo.

IEAG also observed that the ICUMS platform has been shut to all importers and clearing agents whose processes have already been completed in 2021 and waiting to clear their cargoes from the ports.

The group stated that the position that has been taken by the government and, by extension, the GRA on this matter, would be detrimental to the business community if it is not reversed immediately.

Meanwhile, in an earlier interview on Citi FM in Accra, the Tema Branch Chairman of the Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders, Johnny Mantey, said, “we are at a loss. It is just confusion all over. I don’t understand how you expect people to pay the duty, yet you are blocking them so that they pay more. What is the rush? Give enough information, let people prepare and at a certain time when people are aware, then you tell them what to anticipate...

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