The Special Surveillance Monitoring Unit of the GRA Customs Division has arrested 6 vehicles with ECOWAS number plates for abusing the Temporary Vehicle Importation regime (TVI)
The vehicles were arrested at when the Special Surveillance Monitoring Unit mounted a temporary road block on the Spintex/Batsoona Road.
According to the Head of the Special Surveillance Monitoring Team, Michael Sakyi, the vehicles will be detained and made to pay the stipulated duty with an additional penalty of 300% of the duty and if Ithe car owners refuse, the vehicle will be auctioned to clear the debt.
This exercise will continue to ensure that vehicles abusing the TVI are fished out and duty owed the state paid.
The TVI is a regime that permits vehicles to be imported temporarily without payment of import duty and other Customs taxes under Section 75 of the Customs Act, 2015 (Act 891). Under the ECOWAS protocol, motor vehicles of ECOWAS citizens are allowed to be imported into Ghana on temporary admission for ninety (90) days.
Vehicles were free of duty since they must be re-exported within three months of their first importation, either in the same state or after having undergone a specified process or repairs.
Under the TVI, the vehicle while in Ghana must not be offered for sale, lent, pledged, hired, driven away, exchanged or otherwise disposed of, and must not be used for the purpose of picking up passengers or conveying goods to another place.
The TVI is one of the international conventions to facilitate movement of goods and people, of which Ghana is a signatory to.