Many Ghanaians are said to be driving around town in vehicles that haven’t undergone proper customs processes and in effect have eluded the payment of import duties owed to the state.

Some of these vehicles are said to have come through unapproved border routes while others have overstayed their permitted period for temporary importation.

Per the Customs law, users of uncustomed vehicles when apprehended by customs will have to cough up 3 times the duty payable including the duty itself to retrieve their vehicles.

Until the end of September, however, the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority has gracefully waived off the penalties on uncustomed vehicles and thus urging users of such vehicles to regularize customs procedures for their vehicles before the grace period elapses.

Speaking to Solomon Anderson on Eye on Port, a Chief Revenue Officer at the Vehicle Valuation Unit of the Customs Technical Services Bureau (CTSB), Justice Njornan Magah Yadjayime said this amnesty forms part of the initiatives lined up to improve tax education during the celebration of tax month in July and August.

“So assuming that you are driving for a meeting and you are caught on the way by the Preventive Unit of Customs and then they pick the vehicle from you, they issue a detention receipt after which it becomes seizure if you do not appear within 30 days. If you come at any time and you want to claim the vehicle, you will pay the duty plus the 300% penalty.

So for this period, where we have the amnesty, we know that you have committed an offense but you are being pardoned so you can just come for it at the Customs headquarters, Regional Customs Office or any Customs Office with a letter covering the vehicle and then they will process it. It will go through ICUMS and then you have the vehicle to go to DVLA and then you register it,” the Customs Officer detailed.

Mr. Yadjayime also cited a peculiar case where some vehicle owners acquire uncustomed vehicles auctioned by some state institutions who enjoy exemptions. However, he clarified that these exemptions do not extend to the ordinary user.

Such individuals, upon acquisition of these vehicles must regularize customs procedures for the vehicle and pay the requisite duty before using it. He encouraged these ministries, departments and agencies to help facilitate customs processes for such vehicles before parting ways with them.

The Supervisor in charge of the Vehicle Valuation Unit at the Customs Technical Services Bureau said from October 1, his outfit will begin rigorous nationwide unannounced inspection of vehicles to clamp down offenders.

He said the customs division is equipped with the tools necessary to uncover and outwit the schemes of offenders who may try to tamper with the chassis of the vehicle and falsify documents, among other means.

Such a vehicle when apprehended will undergo a 30-day period of detention after which it moves to the seizure stage for another 30 days and then confiscation if the individual is unable to regularize custom procedures and pay the duty.
He revealed that intelligence gathered points to the eastern frontier as a loose end for the smuggling of such uncustomed vehicles.

The Commissioner General together with JICA is going to deploy some technology along the corridors to tract the entry of smuggled vehicles, he said.