The Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has shelved its decision to implement the policy directives on the removal of the reduction of benchmark values on imports on selected items.

A statement signed by Col Kwadwo Damoah (Rtd), Commissioner of the Customs Division dated January 13, 2022, said following the outcome of a meeting held on Wednesday, 12 January 2022, the Customs Division of GRA has been directed to suspend the implementation of the policy directive on the removal of the reduction of values on imports.

Below is the full statement:

A few days ago, President Nana Akufo-Addo directed the GRA to stop the implementation of the reversal of the benchmark value discounts to allow greater consultation to take place.

The benchmark value discounts were first introduced to hedge against price hikes.

It was billed to have been reversed on 4 January 2022 but the rollout caused chaos at the ports necessitating the GRA to defer it to 6 January to prevent a retrospective application to imports that came in prior to the reversal.

Eventually, the GRA extended to rollout date to 17 January to allow further consultations to take place.