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The 50% and 30% reduction in import duties announced by Vice President Mahamadu Bawumia appears to have been misinterpreted by the public.
Seth Twum Akwaboah, General Manager of the Ghana Industries Association (AGI), said the reduction in the reference value did not mean a reduction in duties.
He explained that the reference value used to calculate the value of goods comes into play only when there is no clarity or uncertainty as to the value of the declared goods.
"So, if you declare some value and that this matches what customs experts [officials] Then they leave it and you pay the appropriate fee so that it is not a reduction of the right. Only when your statement does not correspond to what the customs have and say they will use a certain benchmark. "
This means that the value of an importer can not be less than this benchmark, he said, adding that "any value above that is acceptable, but less than that." they will not accept it, that is what the reference value does. "
Many Ghanaians expressed their enthusiasm when the Vice President announced the 50% and 30% reduction of import benchmarks during his plenary session in Accra on Wednesday.
"To reduce the incidence of smuggling and increase revenues, reference or delivery values of imports have been reduced by 50%, with the exception of vehicles which will be reduced by 30% as of 4 April 2019, "said Dr. Bawumia.
He added, "This means, for example, that if a container was previously valued at $ 20,000 worth of duty, it will now be valued starting tomorrow at a value of $ 10,000. We expect that the highest volumes of at least 50% per year and increase personalized income. "
Dr. Bawumia announced the reduction on Wednesday at the public sitting of the government
Some people were moved to hear this because they thought import prices would go down, but that may not be the case.
Mr. Akwaboah said that there were very few cases where import duties would be reduced by 50% or 30%, as people think.
"In some cases, there may be no reduction at all and, in fact, most of the goods we import – if it is consistent and they declare the good value – that [the import duty] should not be touched at all. This will not necessarily result in a reduction of rights. This is not the same as a 50% reduction of rights.
"Only when uncertainty prevails – Customs is unclear that the values declared by an importer are consistent with what they think is value. In most cases, the value will remain the same, so we should not be too excited by the 50% reduction in import duties, "he added.
He went on to say that because of the CET's CET, it would be impossible for Ghana to make a general reduction in import duties.
The CET aims to ensure the transparency of customs procedures, reduce border delays and facilitate intraregional trade.
"The CET has thresholds, in fact, it has tariff bands that are applicable, Ghana can not change its own like that. So it has to be part of the tariff bands … if you are talking about a 50% reduction in tariffs, that means that the tariff band, for example 20%, will be 10% and ECOWAS does not. will not accept, "said Akwaboah.
For the AGI, a total reduction in import rates would have catastrophic effects on Ghanaian industries and this can not be tolerated.
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