ICUMS rakes in GH3.7bn revenue in 3 months

The new trade facilitation platform, the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS), has significantly impacted government revenue mobilisation, the Commissioner of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Col Kwadwo Damoah (retd), has said.

Provisional figures the Customs Division made available to the Daily Graphic indicate that three months [July 1 – September 26] into the deployment of ICUMS at the country’s ports and frontiers, the system raked in GH¢3.65 billion.

The figure is GH¢825.88 million higher than the GH¢2.82 billion mobilised in the same period last year and GH¢388.31 million higher than the July-September 2018 revenue of GH¢3.26 billion.

The revenue items comprise import duty and levies, import VAT, import NHIL, import GETFund levy, total imports and petroleum tax.

Justification

In an interview with the Daily Graphic in his office on October 5, 2020, Col. Damoah said the encouraging performance of the ICUMS had given meaning to the decision to switch from the old system.

“This is happening under the COVID-19 pandemic when there have been reduced imports at Ghana’s land and seaports,” he said.

“In terms of efficiency and effectiveness, we are almost around 90 per cent,” he said of the ICUMS.

He attributed the initial hullabaloo about the system to change management, as well as “the fear of the unknown”.

Otherwise known as Unipass, the ICUMS was met with initial suspicion and apprehension by some stakeholders, especially freight forwarders, but the commissioner said results so far had proved the point that the government took a prudent decision in deploying the system.

Second phase

Otherwise known as Unipass, the ICUMS was met with initial suspicion and apprehension by some stakeholders, especially freight forwarders, but the commissioner said results so far had proved the point that the government took a prudent decision in deploying the system.

Second phase