The Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Anthony Sarpong, has revealed that Ghana lost more than GH¢11 billion in revenue due to under-declaration and other irregularities at the country’s ports.
Speaking in an interview, April 10, Mr Sarpong said the scale of the problem became clear after a detailed review of past data.
Responding to a question on how serious revenue leakages had been prior to the introduction of the Publican AI system, he described the situation as alarming.
“This is very significant. When we took office, we did a study of past data over about five years, and the results were very revealing,” he said.
According to him, the losses were largely linked to incorrect declarations involving the country of origin, classification of goods and valuation.
“We identified that over GH¢11 billion in revenue was lost to the state because of issues relating to country of origin, misclassification and valuation,” he stated.
Mr Sarpong further disclosed that investigations uncovered collusion among key players within the import chain.
“We found that there was some collusion among shipping line staff, customs officers and some importers, and this is how the scheme was being run,” he said.
He explained that the high level of human involvement and discretion within the system made it difficult to detect and prevent such practices.
“We realised that using the same human-centred system and the extensive discretion was not going to help us,” he noted.
This, he said, informed the decision to introduce the Publican AI system to reduce human interference and improve accuracy in duty assessment.
“The use of AI automation… looking at country of origin, classification and valuation, will give us the opportunity to see ahead of time. That is how we ended up bringing in the Publican to help solve this challenge,” he explained.
Mr Sarpong also addressed claims that Ghana loses about three million dollars daily at its ports, stating that the figure is now supported by data generated from the new system.
“This is the revelation after introducing Publican. It is Publican that has given us this insight,” he said.
He explained that earlier assessments were based on manual checks and could not cover all transactions, whereas the AI system now reviews every declaration submitted.
Providing further details, he said that in February alone, the system analysed over 6,000 import declarations.
“Seventy-five per cent of it, Publican said it was okay… within range. But the 25 per cent it flagged gave us a daily average of 3 million US dollars,” he noted.
According to him, this translates into more than one billion Ghana cedis in potential revenue losses each month if left unchecked.
“That under-declaration, if we had not brought in Publican, we would not notice all of it,” he said.
He added that the figures could be even higher during busier months.
“February is a slow month of importation. In March, we are talking about an average of three to three and a half million dollars a day,” he stated.
Mr Sarpong said the findings have exposed the true scale of under-declaration at the ports and underscored the need for stronger systems.
He noted that beyond revenue mobilisation, the new system will also promote fairness in the business environment.
“Those who under-declare are not paying the right taxes, and they have an advantage in pricing over those who comply,” he explained.
He added that correcting this imbalance would benefit legitimate businesses.
“If we are able to bring that 25 per cent to pay correctly, they will be at par with everybody, and market distortions will be fair. So for businesses and traders, we believe that that’s one of the advantages Publican is bringing,” he added.
