ICUMS generates GH ¢ 10.5 billion for GRA despite the impact of the coronavirus on commercial volumes

Business news for Thursday, December 24, 2020

Source: Business 24

2020-12-24

Data coming out of the GRA from the Ghana Revenue Authority shows that the total revenue generated by the ICUMS Integrated Customs Management System for the GRA has reached a record of about 10.5 billion GH ¢ as of December 12, 2020.

This consists of some GH ¢ 7.6 billion for the Ghana Revenue Authority Customs Division from import duties generated from goods in and out of Ghana, with the remainder being revenue generated by the DTRD Domestic Tax Revenue Division of the GRA collecting about GH ¢ 2.7 billion. through ICUMS and Non-GRA revenues, which are also around a little more than GH ¢ 140 million.

It is instructive to point out that the GRA in June 2020 had through a press conference to which it was directed by the General Commissioner affirmed that before the change to the new platform (ICUMS), its predecessor, the National Single Window System operated by GCNet in partnership with West Blue Consulting, it was generating an average monthly amount of GH ¢ 940 million.

This new data justifies the government’s decision to have the new platform implemented by South Korea’s CUPIA in collaboration with its local partner, Ghana Link Network Services Ltd, despite resistance from stakeholders during implementation and technical challenges. who faced the system by the team when the ICUMS went live across the country on June 1, 2020, not forgetting that the clearing and forwarding community also expressed dissatisfaction.

Today, government officials and the GRA itself have been enthusiastic about the ICUMS revenue performance noting that it has improved despite the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on business volumes. This, they argue, suggests an even greater revenue improvement when the pandemic finally subsides.

Apart from June 2020, when the revenue generated by ICUMS fell almost 4% below what was generated in the same period in 2019, as a result of the challenges that followed the deployment in Tema, the current data for the rest of the year have seen an upward trend in revenue performance.

Comparing year over year, you will see that in July 2020, while ICUMS generated over GH ¢ 1.1 billion, while GCNet and West Blue together generated royalty payments of GH ¢ 949 million. This represents a 23% increase for ICUMS.

Again, in August 2020, the percentage increase in ICUMS revenue was around 32%, generating the royalty payment of some GHc1.2 billion, while the old providers (GCNet and West Blue) raised GH ¢ 952 million year over year (August 2019). In September 2020, ICUMS generated more than 1.2 billion GHc, representing a 35% increase in revenue compared to royalty payments of ¢ 920 million GH in the same period of 2019.

Still in the YoY comparison, November 2019 was the best performance of the old providers, raising just over GHc1 billion, but were again outperformed by Ghana Link Network Services Ltd’s ICUMS, which generated about GHc1.2 billion. which represent a 26% increase in percentage terms. In October 2020 the ICUMS raised 35% (GH ¢ 1.3 billion) in revenue higher than what GCNet and West Blue (GH ¢ 980 million) generated for the government.

Since the elections and entering 2021, raising public revenue has become even more crucial for the government than usual, as the impact of the coronavirus outbreak has drastically limited its traditional sources of income, even as its health spending is Social intervention has increased dramatically and debt levels have also skyrocketed.

Last week, the Deputy Commissioner for Customs in charge of the Accra Sector Command, who is also the chair of the ICUMS Implementation Committee, Emmanuel Ohene, in a media interview, praised the success of the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS), which he said has significantly transformed trade facilitation.

The success of the system, according to him, includes the elimination of the multiple routes prior to the payment of fees, fluid processes, increased income, rapid processing of pre-manifest returns, and undertaking classification and valuation in the same system, among others.

The second phase of ICUMS will be completed by the first quarter of 2021

Ohene has told the media that after a successful implementation of ICUMS phase one, the public should expect the second phase of the trade to be implemented in the first quarter of 2021.

While admitting some genuine complaints from the business public regarding the new system, he noted that the ICUMS was significantly forward-thinking with regard to trade facilitation in Ghana.

Therefore, he encouraged the users of the system to be hopeful, as the introduction of the second phase of the system would see the few challenges solved, as well as many additional innovations.

The ICUMS was first implemented at the various borders in March 2020 after a successful pilot in Aflao and Elubo a month earlier in February. In April, Takoradi, which underwent simulations and endurance tests, took off. Then finally, the largest port in Ghana in terms of size and capacity to accept cargo volumes was connected to the ICUMS system on June 1, 2020.