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18.10.2008 General News

Customs Operations Fully Automated Jan.

18.10.2008 LISTEN
By Samuel Nuamah - newtimesonline.com

FULL automation of customs processes in the country is expected to become operational in January next year.

This follows the introduction of a new system to complement the existing Ghana community network (GCNet) which will be integrated into a new Ghana Customs Secure Document Management system.  

The GCNET/GGCSMS will provide importers and declarants with an enhanced single window for clearing their goods from the ports.

The new IT solution will also allow the Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) to resume its core functions of valuation and classification of goods which had been ceded to the Destination Inspection Scheme Companies.

Professor George Gyan-Baffour, Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, who announced this at the commissioning of a valuation and classification centre for CEPS in Accra yesterday said the new system would also reduce leakages in revenues collection.

The centre, which is fully equipped with software and IT systems required by CEPS to perform its core functions, can accommodate 70 officers.

Prof. Gyan-Baffour stressed that the building represented a further step in the modernisation of CEPS procedures and work practices, adding, it would enable CEPS to continue to improve its services to the public.

“With the opening of this building, Government has now ensured that CEPS has the software, the IT systems, and the accommodation it requests to enable it to resume its roles of valuation and classification”, he said.

“We shall expect CEPS to be able to meet new targets as we seek to increase the pace of national development,” he added.

Mr Emmanuel Doku, Commissioner of CEPS, said as part of the take-over from the destination inspection companies, his outfit was embarking on a training programme to enable the personnel to operate the new system efficiently.

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