Take advantage of CEPS warehousing facilities

Kumasi, April 29, GNA- Importers and manufacturers have been asked to take advantage of the warehousing facilities of the Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) and keep their goods at its warehouses. Mr Cyril Kwaku Duah Mensah, Assistant Commissioner of CEPS in charge of the Ashanti who made the call noted that due to ignorance importers keep their goods at the ports, which attract more duty.

He was speaking at a press soiree organised by CEPS for journalists and other media practitioners in Kumasi on Wednesday. The soiree was designed to enable the management of CEPS, Kumasi Collection interact with the media to promote co-operation and understanding of its operations and activities.

It was also to enable the public particularly importers, exporters and the business community know about facilities available to them at CEPS and particularly see how best CEPS could take steps to remedy the bad perception the public has for the service through the media. Mr Mensah said CEPS, which collected 51 percent of the national taxes revenue last year, had the duty to facilitate trade and commerce in the country and not to hamper trade.

He said, the Ashanti Collection had targeted to collect 18.6 billion cedis revenue this year and therefore warned importers and manufacturers from influencing CEPS officers to evade the payment of import and excise duties.

Mr Mensah attributed the excellent performance of the service last year to the devotion of duty of the offices and gave the assurance that they would continue to perform their duty creditably. Mr Robert Mensah, Public Relations Officer for the Northern sector said CEPS had identified the media as important partners through whom they could reach out to the public on the activities of the service. He therefore appealed to the media to assist the service to create the necessary awareness to enable the business community to voluntarily comply with their tax obligations. 29 April 04