COUNTRY LOSES MILLIONS TROUGH FISHY WOOD IMPORTS (PAGE 29)

The country is said to be losing millions of cedis in revenue as some timber and other importers have resorted to wrong descriptions to get wood products into the country in order to evade tax.
This followed the waiver of levies imported on logs and sawn lumber imported into the country to supplement the needs of the timber industry.
Some importers are alleged to be using wrong harmonised codes to describe processed woods as logs and sawn lumber, thereby unduly enjoying the waiver.
Others who also import processed wood into doors, frames, tables, among others, describe them as “Rotten Wawa” in order not to attract high tariffs.
As a result of these developments, the Timber Industry Development Division (TIDD) of the Forestry Commission, Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) and the Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) have joined forces to eliminate such acts.
At a meeting in Takoradi to discuss the way forward, the collaborators agreed that working in isolation, coupled with the non-sharing of information, gave such importers the chance to cheat the system to enrich themselves at the expense of the state.
They agreed that as a matter of urgency, they would share information since they all worked on a common platform for the country and would ensure that before importers or exporters brought in goods or exported them out of the country, the various entities had knowledge of what covering documents they would look out for.
In his presentation, the Head of Grading and Inspection Department of the TIDD, Mr B. I. Ahmed, said the country started importing commercial timber products such as pipe poles, raw curls, sliced/rotary veneers, logs and sawn lumber of various species for further processing since 1998.
He said available information which warranted the collaboration between the GPHA, CEPS and TIDD indicated that some importers of wood products brought in taxable species and branded them as rotten Wawa in order to evade tax.
Mr Ahmed said the commencement of the importation of these logs and lumber into the country was meant to supplement what was produced locally to meet the needs of the industry and ensure the sector did not lay off workers as the country’s stocks had dwindled drastically.
That, he said, should not give importers the chance to give wrong codes and brands to their imported products in order to evade tax which was much needed to speed up the country’s development.
“We have to realise that log imports were also to ease pressure on the country’s forests, sustain employment, keep industries running and avert the threat of companies relocating to other countries,” he said.
Mr Ahmed said importation of logs and sawn lumber meant further processing in the country to create and sustain jobs.
With other challenges at the moment, he said, importers of the wood products always failed to submit their documents to the TIDD for inspection.
The Executive Director of the TIDD, Mr N. Attah, expressed the hope that with the collaboration, wrong application of the harmonised codes leading to misnaming and misclassification of timber products to evade tax could be curbed.
CEPS and GPHA officials also gave a pledge to support such collaborative efforts to ensure that the due process was followed and proper documents attached to the imports and exports.