Customs intercepts 3 containers of fake electrical cables

The Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) at the Tema Port has intercepted three 40-footer containers of fake electrical cables that do not meet safety requirements.

T- Digital Company Limited, located at Ejisu in the Ashanti Region, imported the three container loads of the fake cables, labelled by port inspection chemists as “dangerous and unacceptable”.

The cables were imported from a Chinese manufacturing company, Haiyan Zhonghai Wire and Cable Company Limited, in Shiquan Town, Haiy Jiaxing in China.

According to the Commissioner of the Customs Division of the GRA, Mr Isaac Crentsil, the seized items would be deposited at the State Warehouse pending destruction.

In an interview with the Daily Graphic last Tuesday, Mr Crentsil said: “The electrical cables in all the three containers were marked unsafe by the chemist during inspection and the consignment was recommended to be seized.”

“We will destroy them because when they are asked to be shipped back, the importers find ways to bring them into the market through unapproved routes,” he added.

He warned that Customs would deal with importers who attempted to cheat the system, saying aside from destroying the goods, “the appropriate sanctions will be meted out to the importer”.

Influx of fake cables

The interception of the containers came in the wake of reports of fake cables flooding the market.

The seized goods were some of the same electrical cable brands that failed laboratory tests conducted by the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) last Friday.

Among the fake brands on the market that failed tests at the GSA laboratory were AKE 1.5mm2, AKE 2.5mm2 and AKE 6.0 mm2.

Other fake brands were Costa 4.0mm2, Haani 1.5mm2, Haani 2.5mm2, KKC 1.5mm2, KKC 2.5mm2, Astro metal 1.5mm2, Astro metal 2.5mm2, Diamond 4.0mm2 CDL metal 4.0mm2, CDL metal 10.0mm2, Eurometal 6.0mm2,

The rest were Wise metal 2.5mm2, CS cable 1.5mm2, Bless cable, 1.5mm2 and Bless cable 2.5mm2.

Cause of fire

A nationwide surveillance revealed that more than 70 per cent of all imported electrical cables on the market were substandard, and could cause fires.

Out of 22 electrical cable brands sampled for laboratory testing, only two, which were manufactured locally, passed the critical safety requirement test for conductor resistance at the GSA cable laboratory in Accra.

The results from the test showed that 20 of the brands, all imported products, were not designed or test-approved to meet the requirements in safety standards.

Meanwhile, a source at the Tema Port informed the Daily Graphic that although fake cables were imported into the country regularly, Monday’s seizure after the paper’s report was the first he had witnessed at the Tema Port.

“What is strange is that most of these cables go through the system or are brought in through unapproved routes because this is the first time I have seen cables seized here and I have been here for some years. Even these goods would have gone through if the chemist had not been vigilant,” the source said.