ELUBO RICE IMPORTERS GIVEN GREEN LIGHT (BACK PAGE, NOV 25, 2010)

Rice importers have now received the green light from the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to clear their imported rice, which has been locked up at the Elubo Border Entry Point.
Official correspondence from the Office of the Commissioner General in Accra to customs officials at the Elubo Border endorsed the initial agreement between the rice importers and officials of the GRA to clear the rice at $0.75 per kilogramme instead of $0.97.
A fax message signed by Mr George Bankson, Commissioner General, giving the go-ahead to the Assistant Commissioner at the border to proceed to clear the goods indicated that after clearing the impounded rice, the customs officials at the border post should revert to collecting $0.97 per kilogramme on imported rice.
That was because the $0.75 per kilo being duty charged now on the rice was only a special dispensation from the Customs Division to the rice importers.
For more than a month, truckloads of imported rice have been locked up at the Elubo Border as a result of the inability of the small-scale importers of the commodity to pay the appropriate tariffs imposed by the Customs Division of the GRA.
Some of the importers claimed they had been unable to raise the money because what Customs Division was asking them to pay was higher than what pertained at the Tema Port.
Commenting on the problem in an interview, the Commissioner of the Customs Division of GRA, Mr E.D. Larnyo, said that if the local importers wanted to attract lower tariff valuation, then the importers should consider consolidating their consignment.
“Under the consolidation, they all give their required quantities to one person, who will travel to the suppliers in Cote d’Ivoire or their country of choice and import it and pay the required tariff, which is likely to be lower based on the world market price,” he said.
Mr Larnyo said if the importers adopted the approach where everybody wanted to import rice in smaller quantities, then the Customs Division would be left with no option than to apply retail valuation of $0.97 per kilogramme.
He said they would hold series of education programmes for the importers to understand the system and that all the customs officials wanted was to ensure that the needed tariffs were collected for the state.
Meanwhile, the local importers have expressed their gratitude to GRA and the government and promised to engage customs officials to ensure that lasting solution is found to the impasse.
“We have lost millions in revenue and interest on our loans, so for now we will like to clear what we have here and pay off our loan and then we can take it up from there,” they said.