GCNet connects Foreign Affairs Ministry to portal

Ghana Community Network Services Limited (GCNet), in collaboration with the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), has started the process of connecting the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration (MFA) to the electronic Ministries, Departments and Agencies (eMDA) portal for the issuance of electronic permits and exemptions required for customs clearance.

The connections onto the portal are part of necessary measures put in place to plug revenue leakages and to facilitate trade and customs processes in the country, particularly towards the removal of paper and manual processes following the deployment of the electronic system several years ago.

GCNet and GRA have consequently organised sensitisation and training programme for 140 Foreign Service officers of the MFA and representatives of various foreign missions in Ghana who are responsible for Custom clearances for their respective Embassies, High Commissions and international organisations.

“It is expected that with the usage of the portal by the MFA, foreign missions and embassies will help to effectively monitor and control diplomatic exemptions granted for various goods that are imported duty and tax free into the country under diplomatic protocols as well as check any inherent abuses which give rights to possible revenue leakages,” the External Relations Co-ordinator of GCNet, Mrs Ama Amoah, said in a release made available to the Daily Graphic.

The release quoted the Assistant Commissioner of Information Technology of GRA (Customs Division), Mrs Elizabeth Opare, as saying that besides automating the exemptions issuance, the usage of the portal had benefits such as helping the GRA to run regular reports on importation.