Look for innovative ways to improve transit trade - Prez Mahama tells customs administrators

President Mahama indicated that Africa, and for that matter Ghana, was not insulated from the current financial economic crisis that had affected many countries across the globe but fortunately, many African economies had remained resilient in the face of those global challenges.

That, he said, had given countries like Ghana the impetus to continue with their national development efforts in order to actualise the government’s better Ghana agenda.

He said Ghana would continue to show political will and commitment to support the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to realise its full potential so that the government could reap the benefits of integration and modernisation.

“I feel very proud to mention that the GRA has on its own developed a road map for improving service delivery and enhancing revenue mobilisation. The performance of the authority, since its establishment in 2009, attests to this assertion,” he said.

The Secretary General of the WCO, Mr Kunio Mikuriya, called for regional strategy for capacity building to facilitate trade and protect society from hazardous goods.

He also called for integration and border management to ensure smooth management of goods and services and find ways of improving upon its supply chain.

The Commissioner General of the GRA, Mr George Blankson, said over the past two years, the GRA had recorded unprecedented gains in its tax reform programme.

He said the authority was proud of the remarkable contributions they were making to the development of the country, adding that the major challenge facing the GRA now was how to spread the tax burden through the widening of the tax net.

Mr Blankson said the government and the GRA would continue to pursue further modernisation initiatives in response to the demands of globalisation and growing demands and expectations of the business community for just-in-time (JIT) delivery of cargo and other services, among others.

“We certainly need to identify the challenges in the customs modernisation process, bring all the issues to the fore and seek the appropriate interventions. This is the only way customs administrations in our region can be brought in line with best practices in the world,” he said.

For his part, Mr Dikko Abdulai, the Vice Chair of WCO regions of Western and Central Africa, said the WCO was an organ that had brought together 179 customs administrations of the world and the West and Central Africa was one division of the six regions.

He said revenue from customs duties was a significant part of government direct tax and that was central to the government’s efforts to protect national economies.