Some section of Freight Forwarders in Takoradi yesterday picketed at the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority offices in Takoradi requesting the suspension of UNIPASS they believe was hampering their activities as the system was problematic.
According to the Freight Forwarders, although the UNIPASS was piloted over a month ago in Takoradi, the problems associated with the system were not addressed leading to the suspension after it was extended to the Tema port.
In an interview with Citi News, a Freight Forwarder who is also an importer, Henderson McCarthy, demanded that the government restore GCNet to Takoradi as it pertained to Tema, until the challenges with the UNIPASS system were fixed.
“All we are saying is that if I have a machine that I’m working with and it takes me ten minutes to do a job and you bring me a new one and a better machine in this 21st Century but this machine is going to take me three hours to do the same job, then what are we talking about? Are you taking me back or into the future? The government has to take a look at this. We the importers and the clearing agents in Takoradi are not happy. It is taking us long to clear, it is taking us more time and more cost.”
“And if you happen to clear a vehicle on this UNIPASS, you get to the licensing office and it is not even in their system. Our call on government is for government to suspend this UNIPASS system and then they should make it better and come back. Let’s use the GCNet because the government needs revenue and let’s give the government the revenue. Before they extended the UNIPASS to Tema, we had reported every problem happening here in Takoradi. So Tema stood on those grounds and said no we don’t want it; but unfortunately for us in Takoradi because of the quantum of goods coming here, they didn’t listen to us.“
“For instance if you want to even send your declaration or CCVR which was previously taking us some short time, now it can even take more than three weeks and they are still having it in their system.“
Derick Prince Abodjan-Chairman, Chairman of the Takoardi District of the Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders while blaming the problems on leadership, said once they have worked with a similar IT system [GCNet] that they are used to, “It is appropriate to go back to it for say three months with Tema until all issues are solved.”
