Of Our Ports And Revenue Losses Government Must Act Now!

On our front page today, we have carried a story about the Tema Port and the enormous revenue leakages that occur there. The summary of the story is that importers have devised ways of dodging taxes. They give wrong descriptions to their imported containers and even though there are scanners to verify the contents of these containers, some Port Officials and Security Personnel collect bribes and allow importers to side step these scanners. Indeed we are told that all an importer has to do is to log onto the GcNet system and give their own description to their containers and when they get the approval of the custom officer then bingo, they are good to go.

So the trick is simple; describe high valued items as low valued goods and pay little or nothing at all. So for instance Air conditioners are described as provisions or foodstuff. Televisions, Textiles, Fridges which are high valued items will be described as house hold goods or stationery so the importers pay less. Off course it is alleged that they share their savings with the conniving serving officers at the ports. Experts have estimated that Ghana Government loses over US100million every month at the Tema Port alone. They also say more than double this amount is lost to the state if one puts together all the losses that occur at the country's ports.

We think the Government has to take this matter seriously. So far we are not convinced that our Government is taking this matter of corruption seriously especially in relation to revenue. The Scandal has raised a number of disturbing cases of loss of Government revenue but no one seems to care.

About two weeks ago, the new Mayor of Kumasi whilst addressing his Assembly disclosed that there exists a system in Kumasi where revenue collection has been outsourced to private companies. He said these private companies take a commission of 70 per cent of all the revenue they collect.

Only last week an Accra-based Newspaper also reported that at the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, a similar system exists where revenue collection is done by private companies. However in Accra the commission is 40 per cent. The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) also has a similar system with such high commissions to private companies. What is going on? Why are citizens paying taxes to private companies?

Why does the Government appear not to be bothered about this? Meanwhile the Finance Minister is asking to increase taxes because there is a shortfall in revenue for the first quarter. What is going on? Who are these private companies that benefit so much from law abiding citizens who pay their taxes?

So today, our front page story brings us yet another case of revenue leakage. Over a USD100 million is said to be lost to the state every month at the Tema Port alone. Will the Government do something about this one or will this also attract the deafening silence that all the other stories have so far received?