What You Need to Know About the Law Banning Importation of Overaged Cars in Ghana.

To further the government’s agenda of promoting economic development, Vehicle Assembly and Automotive Components Manufacturing was identified as a key industry and thus  in March 2020, the Customs (Amendment) Bill, 2020 was passed by the members of  Parliament and assented by the president on April 30, 2020. This amendment is meant to ban the importation of salvaged and used cars older than 10 years into the country.

Fack-check Ghana presents key excerpts of the law in the highlights below.

Highlights of the amended law include;

• The change is meant to amend the existing Customs Act, 2015. (Act 891) and under paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of section 58 states that the prohibition against the importation of salvaged motor vehicles into the country shall come into force, six months after the date of the coming into force of this Act”.

• “The Minister of Finance, in consultation with the Minister of Trade, may, by Legislative Instrument (L. I), specify the date on which a motor vehicle over ten years shall not be imported into the country. The date specified under subsection (3) shall not be earlier than six months after the first vehicle has been assembled under the Ghana Automotive Manufacturing Development Programme.”

• “The date specified under subsection (1) shall not be earlier than six months after the new motor vehicles manufactured under the Ghana Automotive Manufacturing Development Programme are made available”.

• The Ghana Revenue Authority will begin implementation November 1, 2020 and this is because according to section 154 (5) of the Act, the prohibitions will come into force six months after the Act is assented to by the President.