Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Reverend Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah, has said trade facilitation tool, the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS), generates for government some Ghs 1.3 billion to Ghs 1.4 billion every month.
According to him, the present revenue figures indicate the blockage of some Ghs 6 billion revenue leakage in the previous system manned by GCNet and West Blue.
“We have seen significant increase in revenue, if you take the average revenue generated before June 2020 – before the deployment of ICUMS – it was between Ghs 800 million to Ghs 900 million per month, but now we are doing about Ghs 1.3 billion to Ghs 1.4 billion per month. Indicating that we are doing about Ghs 300 million or Ghs 400 million more every month and if you multiply that by 12 months, that’s like Ghs 6 billion in revenues for one year alone, and this was how much was being lost,” the Commissioner-General stated.
“We have done our own analysis and looked at the CI values of all cargoes coming in as well as the volumes of imports and exports to see if there are significant changes in those areas but we have found none, so clearly there were leakages in revenue collection which have now been sealed,” added the Commissioner-General.
The ICUMS, for the period between June 2020 to April 2021, is reported to have generated a total of Ghs 18.1 billion in revenue to the government nearly a year after its full roll-out at the nation’s land and sea borders.
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The revenue generated consist of mobilized revenues from total imports, petroleum imports, the Domestic Tax Revenue Division (DTRD) of the GRA, the ESLA Plc and Non GRA revenues.
Total revenues generated from total imports and petroleum imports for the period under review amounted to Ghs 11.1 billion and Ghs 2.09 billion respectively.
Accumulated revenues from the DTRD of GRA, ESLA Plc and Non-GRA revenues amounted to Ghs 2.04 billion, Ghs 2.2 billion and Ghs 291 million respectively.
According to the operators of the ICUMS system – Ghana Link Network Services Limited – the recorded revenues represent a 34 percent month-on-month average increment in revenues.
An assertion corroborated by the Commissioner-General on Metro TV’s Eye on Port programme monitored by norvanreports.
Also: ICUMS accrues to government Ghs 18.1 billion as system turns 1 year today
Speaking further on the show, the Commissioner-General expressed satisfaction with the ICUMS system stating it has been one of the most successful initiatives implemented at the nation’s ports.
“So far we are happy with the ICUMS system, but we won’t rest with all that we have been able to achieve because there are several modules in the system, we only implemented the key standard modules and this year we plan to introduce other modules,” he intimated.
“ICUMS has been one of the most successful initiatives we have seen despite the initial challenges,” he added.
