The Chairman of the Implementation Team of the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS), Emmanuel Ohene, has disclosed that government exceeded its revenue target in August and November, 2020 from Ghana’s ports.
He attributed this to the introduction of the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS) at the ports.
“Tema collection in November exceeded its target. In August, ICUMS was also responsible for revenue target being exceeded,” he said.
Speaking on Eye on Port, Emmanuel Ohene who doubles as the Assistant Commissioner of Customs in charge of the Accra Sector Command, stated “This is worth noting considering the negative impact of the coronavirus on the global shipping business.”
According to him, an amount of GH¢1.2 billion was realized monthly since the introduction of ICUMS.
The Assistant Commissioner also revealed that ICUMS has been able to integrate successfully with the Drivers Vehicle Licensing Authority nationwide, despite the difficulties associated with acquiring historical data.
He added that in excess of 7,000 tracking devices have been provided by ICUMS for the monitoring of transit cargo and that the temporary escorts on transit cargoes have stopped.
Mr. Ohene disclosed that the rolling out of the second phase of the ICUMS is expected to be done by the first quarter of 2021.
He implored the trading public to be optimistically patient for the Integrated Customs Management to fix the little challenges that has prevented users from experiencing the full benefits of this groundbreaking electronic system.
The Assistant Commissioner indicated that the Integrated Customs Management in itself also has its own checks and balances on supervising officers at the various points of operations in the system ensuring that no undue delays come up as a result of officers’ bad behaviours.
“There’s a performance management system in the ICUMS which monitors how long one keeps a declaration or not,” he added.
He revealed that the initial challenges during the roll out of the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS) have been reduced by about 70%, eight months since the introduction of the system.
Mr. Ohene said the initial delay that users of the system faced when processing bill of entries for example is a thing of the past.
He said once an importer through his or her agent submits documents in ICUMS that are not subject to any queries, it does not take up to two hours to process a pre-manifest declaration.
“One of the very attractive modules which are being used by about 70% of the freight forwarders is the pre manifest declaration; it is one of the pillars of trade facilitation agreement from the World Trade Organization. It allows you to process paperwork and make payment prior to the arrival of the vessel,” he explained.
The Assistant Commissioner of Customs, in charge of the Accra Collection also attributed the success of ICUMS to the decentralization of clearance processes from the Customs Technical Services Bureau.
He said now outstations across the various frontiers of the country can manage some of the various customs regimes including import, export, re export, transit, etc
“In a place like Elubo, where we had a lot of complaints, the decentralization has taken place. Same as Aflao,” he cited.
Emmanuel Ohene also indicated that the initial problem of manifest matching that bedeviled the system is currently non-existent.
He said ICUMS broke down the previous Pre Arrival Assessment Reporting System (PAARS) and ensured that classification and valuation are done through the ICUMS with a Customs supervisor who quickly verifies documents and generates a tax bill.
This, according to him has “eliminated the multiple routes one had to go through prior to the payment of duties” which is a hallmark of the ICUMS system.
The Chairman of the ICUMS Implementation team, also disclosed that since the advent of ICUMS, 141 customs offices across the country that hitherto were operating manually have been brought on-board the ICUMS automated systems and by end of first quarter of 2021 all customs offices would be on-boarded.
While admitting to some genuine complaints of the trading public regarding the new system, the Assistant Commissioner of Customs insisted that ICUMS has been significantly progressive with regards to trade facilitation in Ghana.
He encouraged users of the system to be optimistically patient as the ICUMS team plans to soon introduce the second phase of the system, which would see the few challenges fixed as well as many added innovations.
The Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) is encouraging importers to get accustomed to the act of paying duties and other service charges of the various institutions in the clearance chain at Ghana’s ports in the approved banks by themselves.
According to Mr Ohene , this would reduce the incidence of fraud and cheating by certain unscrupulous clearing agents who are marring the good image of the customs house agency profession as well as that of the Ghana Revenue Authority.
He said the current Integrated Customs Management System in place allows importers the flexibility to pay their own duties and they are not obliged to necessarily hand over monies to clearing agents for the payment of import duties.
“Once your agent provides you with the tax bill you are in the position to pay the duty at any participating bank or through the new platform, ghana.gov payment platform, which has been introduced by the government in recent times,” he elaborated.
Emmanuel Ohene also encouraged importers to take advantage of the duty calculator component of the ICUMS at their disposal by logging on to the site “external.unipassghana.com” to obtain their estimated duties of both general goods and vehicles.
“The first thing you should do as an importer is to demand for the tax bill. The tax bill cannot be manipulated,” he said, for the case where an importer intends to let the agent pay on his or her behalf.
He also advised importers to demand for the original invoices from the other agencies and service providers within the port clearance chain so they do not pay overwhelmingly above the right figures, which is commonplace in dealings with some clearing agents.
“We should be responsible enough as members of the trading public to request for what is rightfully ours,” he emphasized.
The Assistant Commissioner also discouraged importers from falling prey to agents who peddle the falsehood of being able to broker reduced duty for goods.
“With the customs we operate now, it is near impossible for a customs officer to negotiate or reduce the duty of a car or something like that,” he said.
This adds up to previous calls by industry players for importers who seek to do business at the country’s ports to contact customs or any of the reputable freight forwarding associations for the recommendation of the credible clearing agents.
Mr. Ohene, did not deny certain reports of some customs officials allegedly indulged in some corrupt activities, typically taking bribes to facilitate clearance.
He said such reports are welcome by the Ghana Revenue Authority who takes it seriously to ensure customs officers engage in fair and professional behaviours in the discharge of the duties.
“Once we have evidence of these things we deal with it. We have set up responsibility officers at the CTSV to ensure that they would follow up on every activity of the officers and monitor whether some declarations are being stalled or not,” he revealed.
Mr Ohene, also disclosed the second phase of the implementation of the Integrated Customs Management system will not only plug in some of the few gaps identified but will also introduce significant innovations for the trading community of Ghana.
He said one of the key things ICUMS seeks to achieve is to decouple the release of shipping lines from customs payment.
“We are looking at the scenario where transactions with customs will not be tied to the shipping lines so that we do not have the shipping line saying if you have not finished with customs, we can’t release you. That’s what we are looking at doing. There’s a team currently working on that,” he explained.
He added that certain inconveniences associated with state warehouse rent would be resolved to the relief of the trading public.
“The system is set up in such a way that the agents find it inconvenient having to commute to have it manually calculated for them before they go back to pay the rent. The process is quite uncomfortable, admittedly,” he said.
“My technical partners have updated me on the progress made to fine-tune that system. It is a matter that is receiving utmost priority from the ICUMS team. The issue of the state warehouse rent is one of the naughty things ICUMS is hoping to resolve by end of the year,” he assured.
Mr. Ohene also indicated that customs would do well to engage its technical partners to improve the existing duty calculator to be more user-friendly to the general public.
He also revealed that the second phase of ICUMS would introduce an e-wallet regime that would look to credit importers who are eligible for refund on overpaid duties in an electronic account, which they can use for further transactions with customs.
He said this would solve the problem of the daunting process of obtaining refunds in cash.
Mr Ohene also indicated that the Free zones industry is enjoying a seamless integration with the Integrated Customs Management System and the implementers of the system are even working towards further automation interventions.
“Just two weeks ago we had a fruitful meeting with the management of the Free Zones aimed at exploring areas where we can improve on our services including automating most of the documents that one needs for the processing of goods in the free zones enclaves,” he disclosed.
The ICUMS, he said, will introduce one of its modules at the airports known as the Advanced Passenger Information System, which would profile information on passengers arriving in the country to determine their risk levels.
“This would help sister agencies of Customs such as the Immigration and National Security and the likes to know how to treat such passengers. It would also position customs on how to treat such persons’ baggage,” he said.
Source: Mypublisher24.com
