Government proposes 100% increment in passport forms

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called for a hundred percent increment in the price of ordinary passport application form.

This means the cost of the ordinary passport application form will increase to GHC100 from GHC50 if the proposal to the Finance Ministry is accepted.

Even though it is unclear how much express passport application forms will go for should the proposal be accepted, Starr News’ Parliamentary correspondent Ibrahim Alhassan stated the proposed increment is likely to affect the express application form.

The move, according to the Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Ministry is necessary because the cost of production is much higher, and that if they continuously sell at the current price, they will be running at a loss.

In its report to parliament on the approval of GH¢450 million as 2018 budgetary allocation, the Ministry stated the Attorney General had been duly notified about the proposal as part of the review of the Fees and Charges Legislation.

“The Committee was informed that the Ministry had sent proposals to the Ministry of Finance to increase the Passport application fees from GHC50 to GHC100.00 for ordinary passport processing. The fees, which form part of the IGF of the Ministry, is used to defray part of the processing cost, cost of re-tooling and for establishment of passport application centers in all regional capitals in order to ease the acquisition process.

“The inputs have been forwarded to the Attorney General as part of the review of Fees and Charges Legislation. The committee noted that, since August 2009, passport application fees have not been reviewed, although the cost of processing and issuing of the document has increased,” the report read in part.

“While the proposed review when approved would provide the needed revenue to meet the cost of production of the Passports, the Committee was mindful of affordability of the service to the public, and entreated the Ministry to take this into account in estimating the cost of the service,” it added.