The Customs Excise and Preventive Service, CEPS has voiced its displeasure at what it sees as an encroachment on its traditional valuation functions by the pre-shipment agencies. This situation, according to the Commissioner of Customer, Dr Charles Asembri has been compounded, because valuation constitutes a weak point in customs operations in Ghana. In an interview with JOY FM today, the deputy Commissioner of CEPS, MR. Samson Hammond said pre-shipment inspection forms part of the functions of customs. He revealed that most of the problems confronting CEPS is lack of equipment and information to enforce the GATT/WTO agreement. On the reported duplication of functions by the pre-shipment agencies and CEPS, Mr. Hammond said the primary aim of CEPS is to collect revenue for the state adding that CEPS cannot depend only on data from the pre-shipment agencies to determine the value of these goods. Mr. Hammond explained that goods necessarily have to be re-checked but assured importers that the 100 per cent stripping of containers would be stopped as soon the facilities for the usage of alternative methods come in handy.
