We will work to block revenue leakages — Assibey-Yeboah
The Chairman of the Parliamentary Select on Finance, Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah, has said his committee would work on key proposals from stakeholders that will help the current administration to address revenue leakages in order to meet the 2017 target.
He reiterated the committee’s commitment to work with GCNet on key proposals made to the government to address unnecessary complications as a result of non-clarity of roles of some new entrants in the trade facilitation space.
Dr Assibey-Yeboah gave this assurance when he led a 17-member team on a working tour to GCNet to familiarise themselves with the company’s role in trade facilitation, ease of doing business, business competitiveness and revenue mobilisation through e-solutions to facilitate government business.
They were briefed on the operational structure of the company and also some key product deployments about to be launched including the Enhanced Valuation Module (e-Valuator) and the new GCMS III among others. For the members of the Committee, it was a rare occasion to learnmore about the robustness of the valuation models currently in use to drive revenue
E-solutions
Dr Assibey-Yeboah noted that the massive infrastructure and network base of GCNet positioned it as the leader in the provision of e-solutions and must be supported as an example of a model Private Public Partnership (PPP) in the sub-region and Africa.
The Deputy General Manager of GCNet, Mr Emmanuel Darko, announced that GCNet was currently at the forefront of an advocacy to develop a charter to fast-track integration of the reporting regimes of the various agencies on its e-MDA portal so that there would be synergy, as various agencies report to different ministries, which he noted was creating a challenge in fast-tracking processes to facilitate clearance.
Mr Darko further stressed the need for the necessary political will to be exercised to address some challenges that needed urgent attention so the full benefits of the e-solutions deployed by GCNet are realised.
Exports proceeds
The Product Development Manager of GCNet, Mr Carl Sackey, highlighted among others, one of the key e-solutions - the Letter of Commitment (LoC) module deployed at no cost to the Bank of Ghana - to help track exports proceeds into the country and also boost the availability of forex in the economy.
He also announced that to further strengthen the tracking of exports proceeds, for instance, the Bank of Ghana had directed that all exports payments should be accompanied with a mandatory SWIFT number and added that as a result LoC had significantly aided the elimination of human elements and interference in export monitoring.
For his part, the Tema Branch & Transit Manager of GCNet, Mr Jimmy Allotey, reiterated his call for the establishment of revenue courts at the ports as part of the measures to address leakages in the revenue mobilisation chain.
The visit afforded the Select Committee the opportunity to be taken on a guided tour of the operational facilities including the state-of-the-art Data Centre by the Deputy General Manager of The GCNet, Mr. Emmanuel Darko, and members of senior management.