Consultative Forum still not happy about CTN implementation
The Consultative Forum, made up of the various freight forwarding groups, business operators and custom brokers are considering their next line of action as government fully implements the Cargo Tracking Note (CTN) from Monday.
The CTN policy, is to enable government to properly scrutinize major imports with the scope of security management and valuation.
A pilot of the implementation was rolled out in July, this year, but was suspended in August following raising of red flags and a three-day sit down strike by the Consultative Forum as they raised issues on the legal backing of the CTN among other things.
Mr Emmanuel Gadzekpo, President, Custom Brokers Association of Ghana (CUBAG), told the Ghana News Agency that the Consultative Forum was deliberating on its next line of action which he noted would be carried out soon.
Mr Gadzekpo stressed that, “We are not okay with the implementation. We will oppose it, and oppose it until they back down”.
According to him, the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the consultant for the CTN, had failed to answer the questions raised by them as it was obvious that the policy was “a ploy to make money for some people”.
He added that there was no value for money from the CTN as it would rather end up escalating the prices of goods as importers would transfer the cost onto products and the poor consumer.
He indicated that no freight forwarder would do an extra job of listing every item in the container on the CTN before shipment without charging extra as he explained that their work only involved collection of the goods from the export country, packing it into a container and contacting the shipping line to pick it for shipment into the country, therefore any extra work on the consignment would definitely attract an additional fee.
Mr Gadzepko said it was unfortunate that the same people who vehemently opposed the implementation of the Advanced Shipment Information (ASHI) introduced by the previous government wanted to push CTN which was not different from the previous policy.
Mr Samson Awingobit Asaki, Executive Secretary, Importers and Exporters Association of Ghana, in his part, said they would not support such a policy that would bring additional hardship to the public adding “implementation of this policy is what will lead them to opposition”.
Mr Asaki alleged that the GRA was perpetrating an illegality by implementing the CTN as according to him a court injunction was on Friday, placed on it adding, the GRA’s excuse of not being served was not acceptable as it was all over the media.
Source: GNA