The Traders Advocacy Group Ghana (TAGG) has called on the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority to cease what they describe as "intimidation" of their members.

The group alleges that their traders are being subjected to excessive fees following the clearance of their containers at the Tema and Takoradi ports.

In a press release issued on September 18, 2023, and signed by TAGG's President, the organization pointed out that GRA officials were employing multiple taskforces as a means to extract money from their members.

“Realising the benefits of the paperless policy for Ghana's economy and for traders and importers specifically, we accepted the GRA's offer to take part in a stakeholder discussion over the implementation of the paperless clearing system at the ports of Tema and Takoradi, which we explained to our traders that in order to protect Ghana's economic development traders should embrace the processes that will remove human interface when transacting business at our various port," the statement read.

“However, our traders have been harassed and made to pay money to Customs and DTRD task force that uses the ignorance of traders and importers to extort money from them after clearing their containers from the port,” it added.

TAGG further added “We would like to warn this government to stop trying to kill businesses in an effort to jumpstart the economy because it appears that Ghana is falling behind its neighbors and is having trouble filling our ports with cargo, while our neighbors have been obviously experiencing an overflow of cargo as a result of flexible import duties of global trade at their ports.”

The demand from TAGG comes shortly after the Ghana Union of Traders Association asked the GRA taskforce in the Ashanti area to cease harassing its members in a related warning.