THE Government wants to reduce the physical inspection of goods to decongest the ports, a Deputy Trade and Industry Minister, Mr Akwasi Osei-Adjei, has said.

Consequently, goods to be scanned will more than double from its present one quarter to three-fifths of all imports by 2004.

Mr Osei-Adjei made this known when closing a seminar on Clearance and Shipment Procedures for Importers and Exporters in Accra.

It was organised by the Private Enterprises Foundation and CEPS, under a UNDP/Government of Ghana private sector promotion programme.

He said government will expedite the clearance of goods at the ports and also ensure that such goods are not circumvented.

“It is the intentions of government to minimise the physical inspection of goods at the ports to further decongest the ports,” he said.

Mr Osei-Adjei said the ministry will from November this year, require all importers to provide their suppliers overseas with serial numbers of import declaration forms to enable shipping lines to quote them on bills of landing.

This, he said, will help the shipping lines in the preparation of import container list so that, on arrival, containers belonging to the same risk level are stacked at their respective places.

He said clearing procedures in the country are cumbersome and have the added disincentive of unnecessarily wasting the time of business people.

Mr Osei-Adjei said it is in response to these man-made bottlenecks that the government is strengthening institutions such as CEPS the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority the Ghana Immigration Service, and the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority.

He said under the Gateway Project, a Customs modernisation programme will provide the radical institutional changes that will ensure sustainable revenue increase and enhance its service delivery.

Mr Osei-Adjei decried the attitude of some importers who collude with their agents to provide the inspecting agencies with fake invoices and bills of lading.

He said government will continue to attach utmost importance to public health and safety and urged all importers to comply strictly with labelling regulations, including the use of English language, and the country of origin on all products.