We expect the Government to engage us rather than impose the policy on us-GUTA
Accra, Jan. 04, GNA – Dr Joseph Obeng, President of the Ghana Union Trader’s Association (GUTA), says they expect the Government to engage them rather than impose the Benchmark Value Policy on them.
He said the Association was still waiting for the commencement of their engagement with the Government as promised by the Economic Management Team for a broader stakeholder consultation before any fair decision was taken on the issue.
Dr Obeng told the Ghana News Agency that “we are expecting that the government will engage with us and not impose on us the Policy without building consensus.”
The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) in a statement said effective Tuesday, January 4, 2022, « the Customs Division of GRA will begin the implementation of Government’s policy directive on the reversal of the reduction of values of imports on selected items, otherwise known as the ‘benchmark values. «
The Association also in its earlier statement called on the Government to hold on with the implementation of the reversal of the benchmark value policy indicating that the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were still prevalent and even in its fourth wave which had worsened the situation.
The President said the benchmark policy did not come out of emptiness but rather there was a major problem that the benchmark value reduction came to resolve.
He explained that the policy came to solve the high duty that traders were made to pay on their goods and the Government listened to their plea.
Dr Obeng said the Government was challenged to reduce the duty rate but because of the Common External Tariff of ECOWAS, they were challenged to reduce the duty rate.
He said its reversal would be very devastating for businesses and that was why they were calling on the Government to hold on with the implementation especially when they had been being promised to have a stakeholder engagement.
He said the natural consequence was that there would be price build up, which would naturally be transferred to the consumer.
“Every cost that is incurred by the importer will definitely be passed on to the consumer,” he added.
Dr Obeng said this would negatively impact on the prices of goods and services in the markets especially where the consuming public also had limited resources.
“If care is not taken our capitals are going to be dwindled and businesses will collapse,” he said.
