The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has been dragged to court over the implementation of the Cargo Tracking Note Policy.
The GRA is being sued by a member of the Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders and a Lecturer at Kaaf University College John Kwame Adu Jack.
The Cargo Tracking Network Policy seeks to allow shipments to Ghana including transit Cargo and shipping exporters and forwarders at various ports of loading globally to obtain validated CTN number to help track the right content of consignment to avoid undervaluation at the ports.
The policy which is currently being piloted is expected to be implemented fully from Monday, October 15, 2018.
The plaintiffs are asking the court to:
- Declare that the introduction and implementation of the policy is illegal, unconstitutional and a breach of the provisions of the said trade facilitation.
- Perpetual injunction to restrain the defendant (GRA , Commissioner and CTN Ghana Ltd ) assignees etc from introducing and implementing the CTN in its current state.
Meanwhile, the GRA has issued a statement announcing the full take off of the policy from October 15.
Below is the full statement:
IMPLEMENTATION OF CTN
This is to serve notice that the implementation of the Cargo Tracking Note (CTN) policy begins in earnest on Monday, 15th October 2018.
The intervention is to provide greater scrutiny of our major imports for both valuation and security management purposes.
From Monday, 15th October, 2018 importers whose imports, from records, exceed thirty-six (36) Twenty Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) per year will be required to obtain a CTN Number in the country of export.
This means, any importer who imports less than 36 TEUs per year is exempt from CTN compliance. Further, businesses that import more than 36 TEUs per year but can demonstrate that the nature of their imports and their turnovers make them small importers will also be exempt.
These exemptions are to ensure that our small and medium scale importers, mostly petty traders, our market women and men, small distributors, and other small to medium businesses are free from the requirements of this intervention.
Government will monitor closely the implementation of this important customs management tool with a view to learning the needed lessons and adjusting the scope and mechanics of the policy to achieve both the valuation and security enhancement objectives of the intervention.
We thank all stakeholders for their cooperation as Ghana Customs prepares towards the rollout of this national exercise.
Commissioner-General
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM/Fred Dzakpata
