The Ghanaian government has reviewed and reduced the benchmark value on vehicles and household goods from thirty 30% to 10% and 50% to 30% respectively. This reduction comes after a consensus meeting between Ghana’s Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta and the leadership of the Ghana Revenue Authority, the Ghana Union of Traders Association, the Institute of Freight Forwarders and the Association of Ghana Industries. This new implementation is set to commence in March 2022.
The government introduced the benchmark value policy in 2019 according to the World Customs Organization policy of regular review on valuation database, a decision that many unions kicked against and have been consulting with the government on a complete reversal. According to the Deputy Minister of Finance, Madam Osei Asare; this consensus was reached with all stakeholders and these reductions are only the first phase of a review of the policy. She added also that the new development will help Ghana’s government and the Ghana Revenue Authority to reach its 80.3 billion cedis budgets for 2022.
In security matters, the president of the Bankers Association, John Awua, has blamed the delay experienced in procuring armed bullion vans on the Interior Ministry. He was speaking in the wake of an armed robbery attack where a bullion van transporting money in Accra. Although three people were injured by gunshots, the heist was ultimately unsuccessful. Consequently, the Inspector General of Police renewed calls for banks to always use bullion vans in the movement of cash. “It has, therefore, become necessary to re-echo the Police Administration’s call for all financial institutions in the country to resort to the use of such fit-for-purpose vehicles for their cash in transit activities.”
However, according to Awua, a number of banks have procured the armoured vehicle but was facing difficulty from the Interior Ministry. “
I can say that we’ve made some progress from the perspective of the banks. Unfortunately, we need the Interior Ministry to fast track their processes and to enable them to release the documentation that will enable banks to bring in these vehicles. As we speak, some banks have armoured vehicles parked at the Team Harbour.
They’re unable to clear them because the processes for getting these vehicles cleared at the Interior Ministry have almost stalled. We’re not making progress at the Ministry at the moment”, he said.