The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) is poised to speed up the implementation of the Ghana National Single Window (GNSW) to ensure that the project is delivered on time.
To this end, the GRA would engage more fully with its partner government agencies to achieve the overall objective of the project.
George Blankson, the Commissioner-General of the GRA made this known at the launch of the GNSW Strategy and Roadmap in Accra, today.
He explained: “This strategy aims at achieving a fundamental enhancement in the way we conduct the business of the GRA Customs Division which is key to the partnership between government and the business community for the economic growth and prosperity of the country”.
The novelty project which aims among other things at reducing delays at the country’s ports has been welcomed by the private sector, the political class, and the international community.
The GNSW project was initiated on 1st September 2015 by the Government of Ghana to enhance the country’s trade and economic development and secure and increase government revenue.
The technical partner of the GNSW project, West Blue Consulting was contracted by the Government of Ghana to run the five year project which successful implemented the Pre-Arrival Assessment Reporting System (PAARS) in the first phase of the project.
The PAARS is a modernized system that has been developed by the Customs Division of GRA as part of the implementation of the GNSW project to enhance revenue mobilization, improve border security and customs clearance, overcome duplication across regulatory agencies and promote trade facilitation.
Second phase takes off
Moving to the second phase of the project, Mr Blankson said: “We in GRA, with the support of our private partners have made significant progress on the learning curve in the implementation of the National Single Window in Ghana as this is the second phase of the project”.
“In this second phase however, we are poised to go much faster and much deeper”, he stressed.
This second phase plan, according to him, is more specific about a number of important changes they would introduce in GRA. For instance, Mr Blankson revealed; “we are focused on implementing a single and fully integrated Risk Management system that will result in a significant reduction in the number of consignments inspected by customs.”
He added: “We also have in the plan to introduce automated registration and payments in a number of key areas and we will fully automate and integrate key process into paperless system for trade”.
Furthermore, the GRA boss emphasized that they would simply, and eliminate cumbersome procedures in a number of areas in the second phase of the project, stressing that ; “we intend collaborating with our sister agencies to significantly reduce the intrusive inspections and interventions along the trade process in Ghana”.
We have in our plan to do all this, while at the same time strengthening the effectiveness of our regulatory responsibilities by creating disincentives and stumbling blocks for delinquent traders and rolling out the red carpet for complaint traders, Mr Blankson indicated.
This, according to experts is the fundamental principle of trade facilitation and it is well proven that this approach works to strengthen the economy by enhancing revenue mobilization and protecting society against consumption of harmful goods.
GNSW is a very ambitious way of using ICT
The Minister of Finance, Seth Terkper who launched the GNSW Strategy and Roadmap, maintained that “this forms part of the fiscal management processes of the government”.
“The GNSW is a very ambitious way of using ICT platform to rake in more revenue for the socio-economic development of the country”.
Presenting the GNSW summary of key findings, the Chief Executive Officer of the West Blue Consulting, Madam Valentina Mintah observed that multiple system, paper and manual customs operations, challenges with network and power supply unreliable, among others are some of the problems identified in the system.
Notwithstanding, Madam Mintah noted that after some months of the implementation of the trade facilitation system, it has reduced the cost of doing business at the Tema and Takoradi ports.
GNSW reduces cost
Since the introduction of the GNSW’s PAARS last year, traders are able to access Customs Classification and Valuation Report (CCVR) within 48 hours, she revealed.
In some cases, within an hour that is substantial improvement from the previous situation whereby it used to take traders more than a week or two weeks just to get their CCVR, the CEO stated.
Madam Mintah was quick to add the system has brought some efficiency at the ports, reduced time, reduced corruption, and cost of doing business.
The Customs Division of GRA took over the processing of the CCRV from the destination companies in September last year. The CCRV replaced the destination inspection report also known as the Final Classification and Valuation Report (FCVR). In spite of the successes chalked so far through the implementation of the PAARS, she said there was still more room for improvement.
Ghana ranked 171 in this year’s World Bank’s ‘Trading Across Borders Rankings’ report on the cost and time of administrating procedures and processes for importing and exporting.
Reducing these factors (time and cost) is exactly what the Ghana National Single Window project is designed to address, Madam Mintah noted
Based on the experience of the Single Window implementations in other countries, West Blue estimated that the GNSW project would reduce the cost and time of international trade (import, export and transit) in Ghana by 50 per cent and 25 per cent respectively over the next five years.
Economic benefits
This, Madam Mintah explained would have a huge impact on the international competitiveness of Ghanaian business and should other things being equal, result in a strong growth in the country’s international trade performance.
It will also significantly increase the global ranking of Ghana in the World Bank’s ‘Trading Across Borders Report’ from the rank of 171 in 2016 to 121 by 2021. Similarly, the ranking within the Sub-Saharan African regions could increase from 36 to 16, if all things being equal, she stated.
Madam Mintah added that another potential benefit of the GNSW is the likely positive impact on the country’s foreign direct investment prospects.
“Trade efficiency is a key determinant of investment decisions by international business and the positioning of Ghana as a trade efficient and trade friendly country will greatly enhance its attractiveness to such investors”.
Furthermore, she believes that the GNSW is expected boost economic growth of the country, adding that the Single Window would enhance institutional and nation building, improved and effective collection of government revenues, simpler, faster processes for clearance and release, reduced costs of compliance, reduced corruption, reduction in bureaucratic processes, among others.
Background
Indeed, the Single Window concept was developed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in 2005 as an effort to simplify, harmonise and standardise international trade procedures and associated information flows between trade and government and within government itself.
UNECE, through its UN Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT), defined Single Window as “a facility that allows parties involved in trade and transport to lodge standardised information and documents with a single entry point to fulfil all import, export, and transit-related regulatory requirements. If information is electronic, then individual data elements should only be submitted once”.
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