Deputy Commissioner of Customs in charge of Suspense Regime and Chair of the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS) Implementation Team, Emmanuel Ohene, has said the ICUMS system needs to be made a national asset.
According to him, the system which has greatly improved the way business is done at the nation’s ports and increased revenues accruable to government can be exported to other countries particularly the neighbouring countries for more revenues.
“ICUMs has come stay and we must make it a national asset which can be exported to other countries, most at times when we go for World Customs Organization meetings, some of our initiatives at the port via ICUMS have been touted as best practices and it will need the collaborative efforts of all stakeholders to ensure the dream of making the system a national asset is realized,” he averred.
Discussing the topic Seamless Clearance of Cargo at the Port; the Journey So Far on the Eye on Port programme, Mr Ohene touted the ICUMS system stating that it has been able to ensure seamless clearance of goods at the ports.
“ICUMS has driven positive change in the way we do business at the port both from the end of freight forwarder and customs. We now virtually work through exchange of data between forwarders, customs and all allied stakeholders at the port in the area of release from shipping lines, in the area of payments of revenue, in the area of customs processes and so on,” he stated.
“So ICUMS has come a long way to improve the way we do business at the port,” he added.
Mr Ohene’s assertion of ICUMS improving goods clearance processes at the ports was corroborated by President of the Association of Customs House Agents Ghana (ACHAG), Mr Yaw Kyei.
According to Mr Kyei, the ICUMS tops all trade facilitation systems deployed at the country’s ports since the nation begun automating goods clearance processes at the ports in the late 90s.
“ICUMS in terms of speed and ease of doing business, is one of the best we be gotten so far. You can now put in your declaration far ahead of time even before the vessel comes and also go ahead to effect duty payments, something previously not done,” he stated.
Speaking further, Mr Ohene however, admitted that there still some challenges such as change management and data migration currently facing the ICUMS systems which customs is close to resolving them.
“Some of the challenges we had with the introduction of the ICUMS system and are still working to have them resolved have to do with change management and data migration from the legacy system. But fortunately the data migration is being completed and with the change management we are still in the process of conscientising all stakeholders especially customs and the trading public,” he noted.
ICUMS is an all-in-one customs management solution specially tailored for the port needs of Ghana. It is a modern and world class technology acknowledged by international bodies such as the World Trade Organisation and the World Customs Organisations to facilitate trade, ensure end-to-end supply chain security and increase revenue.
Data provided by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) indicate that total revenues generated by the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS) reached a record high of some Ghs 10.5 billion as at December 12, 2020.
This consist of some Ghs 7.6 billion for the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority from import duty generated of goods in and out of Ghana, with the rest being revenues generated by Domestic Tax Revenue Division (DTRD) of the GRA raising some Ghs 2.7 billion through the ICUMS and Non GRA revenues which is also hovering around a little over Ghs 140 million.
Since its deployment at the nation’s land and sea borders in June last year, the system according to the Minister for Trade and Industry, Alan Kyeremanteng, has increased government’s revenue by Ghs 1.6 billion more by the end of December, 2020.
