Individuals and businesses involved in the unauthorized export of charcoal risk facing serious penalties.
John Yeboah, Senior Manager for Renewable Energy Regulations at the Energy Commission, has issued a warning that any charcoal shipments without the required license will be seized at the port.
He further stated that those found engaging in such illegal activities will have their licenses revoked.
” We actually request for the container from the shipping lines for them. But we are always in the process all to the end. But if somebody just manage to get containers from the shipping lines anyway, anyhow, and tries to export it, and we we get to know of it when we impound all the containers that had been stuck with charcoal for export,”
“And if the person has a license, the first thing is the Energy Commission Board will decide whether to revoke their license or cancel it altogether and stop the person from production until a proper investigation is done and it is seen that the person was actually trying to export charcoal that has not been produced using the appropriate guidelines. Then we would normally go to court, get a court permit, and then we’re washing it, in all the container in the local market. So people are actually fined in the courts.”
” Nobody had been imprisoned before, but people have been fined for trying to export charcoal illegally.”
