From George Ernest Asare, Kumasi.
The Commissioner of the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), Mr E.R.K. Lanyon, has called on the private sector to support the service by providing it with confidential commercial information that will enable it to protect business interests from criminals.
He said CEPS had already “signed several memoranda of understanding with different business partners as a way of enhancing the effectiveness of customs controls of imported counterfeiting goods that breach the rights of trademarks and copyright owners”.
He explained that such a collaboration would also enhance the fight against commercial fraud and other infractions that undermine revenue generation in the country.
Addressing a cross-section of the public, including the business community, security agents, academia and the media, during the celebration of International Customs Day in Kumasi last Tuesday, Mr Lanyon gave assurance of the commitment of CEPS to engage the private sector positively for it to “achieve mutual benefits and protection”.
The celebration was on the theme, “Customs and Business: Improving Performance through Partnership”.
Mr Lanyon noted that notwithstanding the fact that CEPS had developed instruments and modern technological tools that sought to enhance its performance, “the global financial downturn and the threat posed by trans-border organised crime and terrorism have raised enough anxiety and the needed impetus to explore alternative strategies that will complement existing ones”.
“ The public-private partnership venture embarked on under the Ghana Gateway project, for example, has transformed CEPS operations remarkably by way of automation and simplification of customs procedures to achieve reduced clearing time and cost, increased revenue collection and improved competitiveness,” he stressed.
Mr Kofi Opoku Manu, the Ashanti Regional Minister, said CEPS was a major revenue earner and so efforts should be made to improve its operations as a way of making it more efficient.
That, he said, would enable the service to increase its revenue to enhance the sustainable development of the country.
Mr Opoku Manu said since CEPS could not work in isolation, there was the need for it to sustain the collaboration with the private sector as a way of facilitating trade and revenue generation.
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