Rice importers in Ghana are making substantial gains from trade-based money laundering (TBML) according to local media.

Traders are employing under-declaration or under-invoicing techniques to cheat the system by declaring prices lower than the actual price of the rice at source.

Undervalued

One importer bought 500 kilogrammes of rice from Vietnam at US$572 per kilogramme, a total value of US$286,000.

But the importer under-declared the value of the shipment, saying it was bought at US$440 per kilogramme, giving it a total value of US$220,000.

Revenue losses

This meant that the customs division of the Ghana Revenue Authority calculated a duty of 45.9 per cent on US$220,000 rather than on US$286,000. So instead of paying a duty of US$131,000, the company paid just US$100,980, thereby avoiding paying US$30,294 in just one consignment.

Misclassification

Using a similar method across several consignments, another company whose identity has been withheld made at total of US$711,000 from its activities.

Traders are also using misclassification in TBML schemes by declaring, for example, that a shipment contains low-value white rice whereas in reality the shipment is of higher value long-grain fragrant rice.