The Importers and Exporters Association of Ghana is urging its members to avoid under-declaring their goods in order not to fall foul of the law.

According to the association, under the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS) persons who engage in such activities will be exposed.

Samson Asaki Awingobit, the Executive Secretary of the Importers and Exporters Association of Ghana, said anyone who engages in such activities could be charged for tax evasion.

“The advice I will give to importers is that, under ICUMS, make sure that you declare your items. If you’re giving your documents to an agent to process, please make sure that you tell the agent not to under-declare because there is always post-clearance auditing and because the actual quantities have not been declared, tomorrow someone will come to you accusing you of evading tax.”

ICUMS was deployed on June 1, 2020, and presently covers 135 Customs operational points across the country.

It replaced the then Ghana Customs Management System under GCNet and West Blue.

The introduction of the system was met with stiff opposition by some stakeholders, who had challenges with operating the system and called for it to be scrapped.

But one year on, it appears calm has been restored at the ports.