John Dramani Mahama has hinted that the next NDC administration, when voted for on December 7, will remove the ban on the importation of salvaged vehicles.

According to him, this will improve the lives of persons within the local automobile industry.

“We will review the Customs Amendment Act 2020...to scrap the law banning the importation of salvaged vehicles,” he said at the launch of the party’s manifesto at UPSA, Accra.

The former president further indicated that the duties paid on the importation of vehicles at the country’s ports will also be reduced to reduce costs for dealers.

“This is to save the local automotive industry so that our people at Suame Magazine, Konkompe [will] continue to work and earn a decent living,” he explained.

He advised the multinational vehicle assembly plants not to sideline the local players as they execute their businesses in the country.

“We will review the Customs Amendment Act 2020 (Act 1014) to scrap the law banning the importation of salvaged vehicles and the proposed implementation of a 35 per cent import duty rate. We are going to scrap it in order that salvaged cars are not banned and the top duty rate [the] government intends to impose on these vehicles does not happen. This is to safeguard the local automobile industry so that our people in Suame Magazine, Abossey Okai, Komkompe will continue to work to earn a decent living.”

The manifesto is dubbed; ‘The People’s Manifesto: Jobs, Prosperity and More.’

The Parliament of Ghana, in March, passed the Customs (Amendment) Bill, 2020 an amendment of the Customs Act of 2015 (Act 891).

The amendment, therefore, banned the importation of accident and salvaged motor vehicles comprising wrecked and destroyed vehicles, and those physically damaged by collisions, fire, water or other occurrences in the country.