Business activities at the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) collection check point at Paga in the upper East Region have slowed down due to the enforcement of the axle-load level law.

As a result, transporters using the check point to and from neighbouring Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali have resorted to using alternative routes to avoid the CEPS officials.

This has consequently resulted in considerable low revenue generation by the service.

Prior to this development, an average of 50 vehicles either leave trhough the check point for Burkina Faso and beyond with goods from the Tema harbour or enter the country from the neighbouring countries on daily basis.

A visit to the border revealed that the hitherto vibrant border was without much activities while the Paga township itself had more or less become a ’ghost town’ .

A Burkinable transporter, Alhaji Mumuni said his colleagues were now routing their goods through Togo and La Cote d’Ivore.

While suggesting imposition of heavy penalties on drivers of vehicles which exceed the axle load level to maintain the roads in Ghana, Alhaji Mumuni said Ghana should have waited for countries in the West Africa sub-region to implement the axle load policy before enforcing the law.

Mallam Issa Alhassan, a clearing agent at the border, bemoaned the decline in business activities at the border which he said had rendered most agents jobless.

When contacted on the issues, CEPS officials at the border declined to comment except to say that other exit points at KUlungugu in the region and Hamile in the Upper West Region were also facing similar problems.

Axle load is the acceptable weight of goods a vehicle is allowed to carry. It is allowed to carry. It is among other things, to prolong the life span of roads.

Ghanaian Times
AA