The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has commenced enforcement against uncustomed vehicles following the expiration of an amnesty granted to owners and users to regularise their vehicles and pay outstanding duties.

Speaking on Joy FM's Super Morning Show on Tuesday, September 8, Senior Revenue Officer at the Preventive Unit, Emmanuel Tweneboah, explained that although the amnesty period has ended, owners of uncustomed vehicles can still voluntarily report to any Customs office to regularise their vehicles and pay the required duties without penalties.

He, however, warned that owners whose vehicles are intercepted by Customs enforcement teams will have to pay the outstanding duties together with applicable penalties.

“The amnesty was given as an opportunity for users and owners of uncustomed vehicles to regularise them. It has ended, so now we are in the enforcement phase,” he said.

Mr Tweneboah urged vehicle owners who have not yet regularised their vehicles to take advantage of the voluntary process.

“If you have your vehicle, you can drive straight to any Customs office voluntarily and pay the duties. If you have any documents covering your vehicle, you will be allowed to pay without penalties. But when the enforcement team gets you or arrests your vehicle, you pay with penalties,” he explained.

According to Mr Tweneboah, the enforcement exercise is intended to ensure compliance with the Customs Act, 2015 (Act 891), particularly Section 55, which requires vehicle importers to pay all applicable duties and taxes before registering and using their vehicles.

He said the exercise is also necessary to ensure fairness to individuals and businesses that comply with the law and pay the required duties.

“Those duties they pay are used for the development of the country, while others are trying to smuggle and not pay,” he said.

He added that businesses that legally import vehicles and pay the required duties often have to sell at higher prices because of the cost involved. Sellers of smuggled or uncustomed vehicles, on the other hand, may offer their vehicles at lower prices because they have avoided paying the required taxes and duties.

Mr Tweneboah said the enforcement exercise is therefore also aimed at protecting compliant businesses from unfair competition.

Mr Tweneboah defined an uncustomed vehicle as a vehicle that enters the country without undergoing the required Customs procedures and without the applicable duties and taxes being paid.

He explained that some vehicles enter Ghana through unapproved routes and are subsequently sold without being processed by Customs.

He, however, noted that not every vehicle on which duties have not been paid is necessarily an illegally imported vehicle.

According to him, some vehicles may legally enter the country under duty-exemption arrangements and would have gone through the appropriate Customs procedures. However, where such a vehicle is subsequently transferred to another person, the applicable duties may become payable.