The government’s implementation of the reversal of the 50 per cent benchmark value discounts on imports will resume today, Thursday, 6 January 2022.

This follows its deferment to today by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to enable importers whose duty bill came before Tuesday, 4 January, to pay and clear their goods.

The GRA deferred the implementation a day after it took effect. 

The reversal will affect 43 selected items from some three categories, including “home delivery value vehicles, goods on which benchmark values are applied and other goods.”

A statement issued by the GRA on Sunday, 2 January 2022, entreated “the trading community, especially importers, to take note of this directive and comply accordingly.”

In 2019, in accordance with the World Customs Organisation’s policy of regular review of valuation database, the government introduced the benchmark policy.

Certain commodities are benchmarked to the prevailing world prices as a risk management tool, to reflect the true market dynamics of these commodities under this policy.

It also takes into consideration factors such as the protection of health, the environment, and security as well as the protection of local industries.

The benchmark value is the amount taxable on imports.