The Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Fifi Kwetey, has stressed the need for the automation of Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) to enhance its operations to meet the challenge of trade facilitation and revenue mobilisation. He said this when he addressed a stakeholders meeting for petroleum marketers to introduce fuel and fluid security known as Tanker Truck Monitoring System (TTMS). The device which is being introduced by Magnate Technology and Services Limited is a wholly-owned Ghanaian company contracted by the government to provide service related to the GCe- Trak System for CEPS. Known as the Ghana Customs Trade Lane (GCee-Trak) System, the project is expected to enforce trade compliance within the customs suspense regimes in the transportation of petroleum products and free zones operations to facilitate trade. Mr. Kwetey said the incident of adulteration of petroleum products and their diversion was a challenge, adding "this will be addressed by the introduction of the GCe-Trak System of the trucks." He said currently the system of monit01ing, in place for the customs suspense regimes, was rudimentary and largely manual. Therefore, the GCe-Trak system will provide a new technological realm as part of the ongoing reforms and modernisation programmes for CEPS. He said: "The tracking and monitoring will cover the full spectrum of clearance chain; that is to say, provide ail end-to-end visibility to final release delivery of the quayside through the transiting of goods to final release delivery and receipt at destination." Mr. Kwetey assured that there would be significant reduction in incidents of diversion of petroleum products and leakages in revenue when the project was completed. He called on all stakeholders to collaborate with CEPS to ensure safety and security of goods. Mr. Jonathan Osekre, Chief Executive Officer of Magnate Technology and Services Limited, said the device was based on international best practices that would help in the protection of cargo traveling throughout their journey and storage areas by providing immediate alerts when unauthorised changes in status occur. Source: Ghanaian Times