The Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has served notice that the implementation of the Cargo Tracking Note (CTN) policy will take effect from Monday, October, 15.

According to Emmanuel Kofi Nti, “from Monday, importers whose imports, from records, 36 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) per year will be required to obtain a CTN Number in the country of export.”

This means any importer who imports less than 36 TEUs per year is exempt from CTN compliance.

Also, businesses that import more than 36 TEUs per year but can demonstrate that the nature of their imports and their turnovers make them small importers will also be exempt.

“These exemptions are to ensure that our small and medium scale importers, mostly petty traders, our market women and men, small distributors, and other small to medium businesses are free from the requirements of this intervention,” he added.

Related: Freight forwarder sues GRA, others over new cargo tracking policy

Government will monitor closely the implementation of this important customs management tool with a view to learning the needed lessons and adjusting the scope and mechanics of the policy to achieve both the valuation and security enhancement objectives of the intervention.

We thank all stakeholders for their cooperation as Ghana Customs prepares towards the rollout of this national exercise.

The intervention is to provide greater scrutiny of our major imports for both valuation and security management purposes.

In a related development, a freight forwarder John Kwame Adu Jack has filed a case in court seeking an injunction on Ghana Revenue Authority from implementing the new CTN systems.

The plaintiff is asking the court to also declare that the policy is illegal, unconstitutional and in breach of the provisions of the trade facilitation agreement.

The writ, brought against the GRA, the Commissioner-General as well as CTN Ghana, the company tasked to implement the policy, is in reaction to the implementation of a new Cargo Tracking Note which will help in monitoring and collecting taxes for imported products.