The Importers and Exporters Association of Ghana has appealed to government not to increase port clearance charges in 2021.

Mr Samson Awingobit Asaki, Executive Secretary, Importers and Exporters Association of Ghana, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said, “we don’t want to see additional charges or any new taxes, we want a reduction rather”.

Mr Asaki said with Accra becoming a commercial centre due to the location of the secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in Ghana, they were expecting to see more cargo passing through the country’s ports therefore the need to maintain existing port charges to attract more vessels.

On the impact of the introduction of the Integrated Customs Management Systems (ICUMS) and the paperless system on goods clearance, he said tremendous improvement were seen in the clearance of goods especially in 2020 after the introduction of ICUM.

He indicated that because the new system was end-to-end which processed documents and payment through a single window, it made clearing of goods faster as an agent could start the process before the cargo reached the country reducing cost and payment of demurrages.

He added that with the new system, importers could easily check from the system where their cargo had reach as well as the processes it had gone without the help of the agent by putting in the Bill of Entry (BOE) code which ensured transparency.