The shipping and trading community in Ghana is on the verge of a massive industrial shutdown as the Coalition of Concerned Exporters, Importers, Traders, and Freight Forwarders has issued a post-Easter ultimatum to the government to suspend the newly deployed “Publican” AI customs valuation tool.
The group, which includes the Ghana Union of Traders Associations (GUTA) and the Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders (GIFF), claims the artificial intelligence system is riddled with technical flaws that have caused customs duties to double, and in some cases quadruple, overnight.
AI valuation vs. human judgment
The core of the dispute lies in how the AI-powered system, introduced by the Ministry of Finance and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), interacts with human assessments. According to the coalition’s convener, Michael Obiri-Agyei, customs officers have been instructed to adopt the AI’s valuation whenever it is higher than their own manual assessment, but stick to the manual assessment if it happens to exceed the AI’s figure.
“This is not a system detecting fraud; it is a system generating inflated assessments against businesses that are doing nothing wrong,” stated Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin, who has thrown the opposition’s weight behind the traders.
Traders argue the AI lacks the “contextual human judgment” required to value second-hand goods, such as used vehicle engines or spare parts, which do not have uniform global pricing benchmarks.
Key grievances
The coalition has highlighted several critical failures in the current rollout:
● Inflated Charges: Examples were cited where duties for wheat bran were assessed at GH¢7.41 million by the AI, despite an actual payable duty of only GH¢2.73 million.
● Legal Inconsistencies: Freight forwarders argue the system violates Sections 67 and 68 of the Customs Act, 2015 (Act 891), which mandates that transaction value not arbitrary AI benchmarks should be the primary basis for valuation.
● Operational Delays: The centralization of valuation functions in Accra and frequent system downtimes have led to significant bottlenecks at the Tema Port.
Government’s defence
Despite the backlash, the government maintains that the AI tool is a necessary step toward digitizing revenue mobilization. Deputy Minister of Finance, Thomas Nyarko Ampem, revealed that since the system went live on March 11, it has flagged nearly 25% of all declarations as being below internationally accepted values, saving the state approximately US$3 million in potential daily revenue losses.
The GRA further contends that the system eliminates human discretion and “collusion,” ensuring that two importers bringing in the same goods receive an equal and fair tax assessment.
Ultimatum Issued
The trading community remains unconvinced. The coalition has demanded an immediate return to transaction-based valuation and an independent audit of the Publican AI system.
“We are not opposed to technology, but its implementation must be fair and reflective of market realities,” Obiri-Agyei warned. If the government fails to halt the system and engage in stakeholder consultations by the end of the Easter period, the group has vowed to trigger a nationwide sit-down strike, effectively bringing port operations to a standstill.
