3,000 Importers Under CTN

A three- year data analysis by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has revealed that the Cargo Tracking Note (CTN), which came into force on October 15, 2018, will  capture about 3,000 (5%) of the total importers in the country. The 5 percent, however, constitutes 65% of all the imports into the country.

According to the GRA, the 5 percent constitutes importers whose imports record exceed 36 Twenty Foot Equivalent (TEUs) per annum and that, the rest of the 95 percent importers are  mainly small and medium scale importers that fall below the threshold.

The GRA made this revelation at a media briefing in Accra yesterday, to further explain to the public, especially traders and importers, the purpose of the CTN that many have raised several concerns about.

CTN is a risk assessment engine, which allows Customs and other Authority to effectively control, supervise and manage import traffic, thus a system that shippers upload information on their cargo onto a global platform.

The policy, according to the GRA, comes at no cost to the importer. In a one month (July) pilot programme conducted by the revenue agency, a leakage of US$14.5 million was detected. The amount is expected to go higher after the pilot completion in August.

As a result, the Commission–General of GRA, Emmanuel Kofi Nti told the media that the CTN, which has become an issue, is here to stay, since it would address trade malpractices at the various ports and help the country to raise the needed revenue for development.

In his explanation, the CTN seeks to cure undervaluation of shipment, concealment of higher rated products, deliberate misclassification of shipment by importers, manipulation of details of port of origin, volume/weight misrepresentation, over invoicing and using a low rated product to hide a shipment of higher rated products.

Other benefits to be derived from CTN is  that it would help the Ministry of Finance with revenue forecasting and the Ministry of Health to close monitor and control prohibited pharmaceutical and medical products.

The Ministries of Interior/Defense and Trade could monitor importation of weapons and provide a reliable and early statistics to ascertain level of imports for strategic economic decisions.

Mr. Nti further stated that the policy was in response to the operations of Trade Facilitation and Security Recommendations by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and World Customs Organisation (WCO), and also in accordance with new standards for International Cooperation between members' states of the International Maritime Orgainsation (IMO).

“Implementing the CTN system, Customs is seeking to modernise its operations to facilitate the movement of legitimate trade in line with international best practices,” the Commission-General added.

Mr. Nti also debunked assertions in the public the Authority has not met with the direct stakeholders but said devoted five solid weeks to explain issues to the shippers and importers and added that the selection of CTN Ghana Limited met all procurement requirements.