In the face of growing public outcry on the cost of doing business at the ports and borders of the country, the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) is encouraging the trading public to familiarize themselves with the process involved in exacting import duties.
Although a cumbersome and highly technical process, customs is hopeful that the fundamentals of import duty calculations will be understood by the average trader who conducts business across the country’s ports and borders.
Speaking on the current affairs maritime television program, Eye on Port, Smile Agbemenu, a Chief Revenue Officer at the Policy and Programmes Department of Customs Division of GRA emphasized that Ghana Customs processes are in line with international best practices and backed by the constitution of the country.
He said, the law-making arm of the government of Ghana, like all other countries decide fixed percentage duty rates that are applied on Customs values of various categories of products.
Furthermore, he said, by virtue of her membership with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Ghana applies the common external tariff of ECOWAS which standardises the rates of duties that are applied on the customs value of goods.
“The rates of import duties are of five tax bands and they include 0% rated, which are deemed to be social goods, 5% rated items which are raw materials or capital goods, 10% rated items which are largely intermediate goods or 20% rated items and 35% which cover finished consumer goods,” he explained.
According to him, these goods are classified under the internationally recognized Harmonized Commodity Description System (HS code) which help customs derive the customs value of the product in addition to the freight and insurance values of the shipment.
In the case of used motor vehicles, Mr. Agbemenu said the home delivery values of cars are used in arriving at the customs values and this may change depending on the age of the vehicle at the point of purchase.