Six Trucks Busted For Evading Duty Payment

Tema, May 18, GNA - The Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has impounded six trucks containing assorted drinks, frozen fish, canned mackerel and lubricants for the evasion of duty payment.

The owners of the cargo were supposed to pay duty to the sum of GH¢570,000.00 but they declared the consignment as transit goods.

Dr. Godfred Okoh Appiah, Tema Sector Commander, Customs Division of the GRA, explained that transit goods did not attract any duty as they were not meant for the Ghanaian market.

Dr Appiah said this was the third arrest his outfit had made concerning transactions meant for transit which were diverted, from April 19, this year.

He stated that the trucks which were meant to go to the transit countries of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger were diverted to Accra with the intention of selling them on the Ghanaian market.

He indicated that intelligence gathered by Customs led them to a warehouse in Tabora, in Accra where the assorted drinks were being offloaded into a warehouse.

The drivers of the trucks and owners of the goods, he noted, had been arrested and in Police custody while the clearing agent managed to escape.

Dr. Appiah assured that his outfit had stepped up vigilance and surveillance to avert diversions of transit goods onto the Ghanaian market.

He advised importers to be cautious of unscrupulous clearing agents who claim to have links that would enable them clear their goods from the ports at reduced duty rates.