Clearing agents cause congestion at Tema Port
The delay tactics of clearing agents have been identified, among other things, as one of the major causes of the heavy congestion at the country’s biggest port, Tema Port.
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The delays are also said to be denying the state millions of Ghana cedis in revenue and further making the once preferred port unattractive for vessel owners from all over the world.
According to some Destination Inspection Companies (DICs) operating at the ports, after going through the various stages of clearance, the agents feel reluctant to clear their containers, thereby creating congestion at the holding area.
“This is major challenge and it must be fixed now to free the holding area of the port”, Mr Stephen Osei Aniagyei, General Manager of Nick TC-SCAN told a group of ministers and officials from the harbor and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) during a tour of the port.
The delegation included the Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, the Minister of Transport, Madam Dzifa Attivor, a Deputy Minister of Finance, Mr Cassiel Forson, and the Commissioner-General of the GRA, Mr George Blankson.
The Scanner Manager of the Gateway Services Limited, Mr Charles Okyne, on the other hand told the Graphic Business exclusively that the “the drivers of the containers and for that matter the agents among other serious factors are to blame for the congestion and the earlier fines are imposed to discourage the practice, the challenge will persist”.
Consequently, they have advocated a hefty fine on the agents who reluctantly left their containers at the holding area for long, thereby creating unnecessary congestion.
Other delay factors
The GRAPHIC BUSINESS also learnt that after the scanning processes which take a maximum of 10 minutes including the processing of documents, the containers were taken to the holding area where customs officials come into inspect each and every single container.
This could take hours and makes nonsense of the efforts to discourage human contact and allowing the scanning report to be the only mode to ensure faster clearance.
It was also observed that, other agencies such as the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), National Security officials, and the various customs officials were also at hand to conduct their independent assessments.
In many instances, when it was time for the various agencies to break the seal on the containers, the agents were nowhere to be found and, therefore, no action is taken until they show up.
It was not clear what the relevance of their duties were but according to some clearing agents “all these human interventions are obvious and that is a serious bother”.
Asked why they do so, some of the customs officials told the paper that “these are necessary and are normal”.
Trade facilitation
In recognizing the challenge, Mr Iddrisu, urged the customs officials at the country’s ports to act as trade facilitators in addition to their duties as compliance officials.
Consequently, he directed them to ensure that imported goods do not stay beyond 72 hours without clearance to reduce the congestion the ports.
“You must act as trade facilitators apart from your core duties as compliance officers who validate documents and that is why you need to ensure that goods are cleared from the port within 72 hours to reduce the congestion”, Mr Iddrisu said.
Revenue collection
In the area of revenue collection, Mr Forson, challenged the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to ensure that customs and excise revenue collection at the port was increased.
The customs and exercise revenue collections form about 40 per cent of the total tax revenue for the country.
“This significant collection if not achieved would have a negative impact on the government’s overall expenditure for this year”.
Port expansion
Madam Attivor said the dredging of the port and an expansion project in which some more of the sea would be reclaimed is expected to start February next year.
She said the project would cost US$600 million and would be borne by the harbor authorities.
Meanwhile, it is obvious that no matter the expansion works to be undertaken at the ports, should the present challenges, including the long bureaucracies and human interventions persist, all efforts at expansion could come to naught.
By Charles Benoni Okine/Graphic Business/Ghana