Ghana – Government has initiated processes to pass the Customs Amendments Bill into law to regulate the importation of vehicles into Ghana.
Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the Majority Leader and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs disclosed this in a radio interview on Okay FM, an Accra based Radio Station Tuesday morning.
He said the decision to ban importation of accident and overaged vehicles into Ghana is to create the enabling environment and market for the many automobile companies about to establish outlets in Ghana.
German car-maker, Volkswagen, Nissan and Toyota are among the vehicle manufacturing companies that have plans to set up assembling plants in Ghana to serve the Ghanaian market and other countries.
Currently, overaged vehicles are allowed into the country after the payment of penalty but Government is considering a complete ban of the importation of vehicles which are 10 years old and also prevent the importation of salvaged vehicles. (Salvage vehicles are those that have been involved in an accident or vehicles that are flooded).
When finally passed, Mr Mensah-Bonsu said, the bill, which is currently at the consultation stage, will help create an enabling environment and the market for the many vehicle manufacturing companies that have pledged to set up assembling plants in the country.
However, responding to the issue in an interview, the President of the Automobile Dealers Union of Ghana (ADUG), Mr Eric Boateng, said that although the union made several inputs on the issue, as they were represented in the committee set up to draft the bill, they are still not satisfied with certain portions of the draft bill.
“We are not happy about the bill but we agree with it to some extent, say 70 per cent, but we are now going to sit down with our members to discuss the issue and see what will come out of it”.
Mr Boateng, however, said that the minister had assured them that their business will not be affected because it was going to allow them to import secondhand vehicles used between two to nine years.
