Importers in Ghana have been chronicling the ordeals they go through whenever they have to bring goods into the country.
At a press briefing held in Kumasi, these Importers lamented that the duties they are charged on the goods they import are outrageous.
They say aside the duties they pay, they have to keep paying monies at all manner of check points to personnel they cannot even identify.
They say many of the personnel at these security barriers are neither CEPS officials, Immigration service officials nor Police.
“Some of them even get angry and assault us when we seek to find out who they are”
“The worst of them are a group calling themselves Senior Minister’s taskforce and another call themselves the president’s taskforce tasked with raising money for free SHS”.
Deputy Secretary of the Eastern Corridor Importers Association; Nana Yaw Owusu Agyemang Opambour who addressed the media appealed to the government to help them by reducing the duties and also checking these personnel who extort monies from them without accountability.
He says some of them just scan the items with their eyes and mention fees. “We were using invoices for the duties however the customs officers now use their own means. Are their eyes scanners? They are milking us. We are appealing to the President to look at our plight.” he said.
They also hint that the activities of these officials impact badly on the government; another reason it should be remedied with alacrity.
They also say the depreciation of Ghana’s currency is not making their plight any easier.
They say these payments add up to very significant costs that are affecting their businesses negatively and want the government to sanitize the process.
They threatened to demonstrate if their plea goes unheeded by the end of March, 2019.
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