Customs division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) is currently running all its port operation by the paperless system to facilitate trade and their operation.
The paperless system which was introduced last year was fraught will some challenges which led to agitation from agents.
Customs was forced to run the manual alongside paperless system to address the challenges.
But the Head of Customs at Tema Port, Dr. Okoh Appiah told Starr Business’ Osei Owusu Amakwaah that majority of the challenges which bedeviled the system; leading to agitations from agents have been fixed.
He added that, all officers have been equipped to deal with agents on the paperless system.
“No officer at the port to the best of my knowledge demands hard copy of a declaration before he works for an agent; it is paperless. Officers have been given tablets; you see them on the field holding tablets and any information they need, any data that they need is captured there. So the hard copy is not any issue again it is strictly paperless,” he said.
The full implementation has led to the declaration of the right values of goods imported (increased compliance).
“Now we have put in measures that will do away with the use of hard copy; who are you to cheat again? It is not possible. So that is a very good intervention that has helped us to rake in more revenue,” he said.
Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia revealed last year that the revenue collected at the ports has increased by 56% within just a week of the introduction of the paperless system.
“The results are amazing; we just looked at data this morning – first week of collections under the paperless system in September this year compared to last year’s first week of collections in September 2016 – and collections have gone up by 56 percent: from around GHS130 million to GHS230 million in one week.”
The paperless system started on September 1 last year.
