Assistant Commissioner, Communication and Public Affairs of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA),Florence Asante, has denied claims that the Tema Collection of the Customs Division failed to meet its revenue target by 45% due to the deployment of the Integrated Customs Management Systems at the Tema port.
According to GRA, the Customs Division on average collects GHS 942 million cedis monthly, and the average three months run rate for Tema Collection for 2020 is GHS574.8 million cedis.
“The performance also clearly refutes the claim that the deployment of the ICUMS at the ports in June 2020 has resulted in revenue shortfalls for the month of June”.
It said this figure compared with the June performance of Tema Collection of GHS 554 million does not show any significant difference in collection.
The authority further stated that revenue figures and the conclusions drawn from these figures by the sections of the media are based on ‘Stretched Targets’ provided to all offices, including the Tema Collection, to motivate staff to perform optimally.
“Far more collection of revenue with ICUM”- Prof Adei
On July 14, the Chairman of GRA, Prof. Stephen Adei in an interview labelled ICUMS as a much better system in comparison to its predecessor, the Ghana Community Network Services Limited (GCNET).
According to Professor Adei, his assertion is premised on the revenue generated by ICUMS despite reduced imports at Ghana’s land and sea ports due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We are getting better results because in May and June alone, even under Covid-19 there was far more collection of revenue than previously collected under the old system”.
“On average the revenue collected is about GHS 800 million, but just last month we had about GHS 1.2 billion and this is even under reduced imports due to the pandemic. And I’m happy to say that despite Covid-19, our end of May revenue was only 8.6 per cent below the target”.
Also, he stated that the surge in revenue collection was as a result of the effectiveness of the ICUMS. In juxtaposing that to the previous system, it is an indication that the country was losing huge revenue in the old system and that the resistance mounted against the introduction of ICUMS was due to fright exhibited by some individual over fears of exposure.
Although he corroborated the challenges being faced by the new system, he iterated that efforts are being undertaken to resolve those challenges and progress is being made.
“We have challenges but they are being resolved and the results so far are promising, we are doing our best for God and country”.
Earlier, the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) had indicated that import duties generated for government in the month of June was pegged at GHc1.2 billion. According to the data which emerged from its Custom Division, the figures churned out represented accrued revenue since the introduction and usage of the controversial Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS) into Ghana.
Comparatively, GRA indicated that prior to the usage of the new system, the National Single Window System operated by GCNet in partnership with West Blue Consulting, was making a monthly average amount of GHc940 million.
