President of GUTA, Dr. Joseph Obeng
• GUTA has responded to some assertions made by paddy Rice Millers and Oil Palm refineries
• The Union says Ghana does not adequately benefit from the local production of rice and oil palm
• This is on the back of calls by the paddy rice millers and oil palm refineries for reversal of the benchmark value reduction policy
The Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) has described the paddy producing Rice Millers Association and the Artisanal Oil Palm refineries as ‘cheats who are operating under the guise of domestic production.’
According to president of the union, Dr. Joseph Obeng, the two bodies often import their produce and sell on local markets, hence their call for a reversal of the benchmark reduction policy is flawed.
In an interaction with GhanaWeb, the GUTA boss pointed that, “Ghana, as a country is not gaining any benefits from the paddy rice millers and oil palm refineries because they are only importing their produce under the guise of domestic production and this is rather not helping the value chain to expand the local out-grower scheme to boost food security.”
“For instance, the paddy rice and oil palm is imported and only bagged here in Ghana and we, therefore, call for more scrutiny into the activities of the rice millers association and oil palm producers,” the GUTA president said.
“Since the introduction of the benchmark value reduction policy, government has succeeded in achieving its revenue target and subsequently succeeded in curbing smuggling citing the smuggling of rice from the Western Corridor,” Dr Obeng added.
He pointed that assertions made by the paddy Rice Millers Association stating that the manufacturing sector offered more employment than that of the trading community is also a flawed argument.
“It is not possible that the manufacturing sector employs more, the trading community is categorically the largest when it comes to employing people to get jobs except farming.”
Dr Obeng indicated that the so-called local producers have leverage over the importers who pay duty and other levies that accumulate between 55 to 65 percent and therefore believes with the benchmark discount, they still have a leverage of between 30 to 40 percent against the trading community.
“If the cost of production is high, they need to explain to government where their shortfalls are in order to reference the efficient cost-effective mechanisms to assist them to be a par with their competitors around the globe and this not the doing of the importer,” the GUTA president suggested.
The response from GUTA however comes on the back of the paddy Rice Millers and Artisanal Oil palm refineries, calling for a reversal of the 50% reduction in benchmark policy at the ports as they say the policy is crippling their businesses and only benefits a select few.
Already GUTA has in recent weeks been urging for the benchmark policy to be maintained as they believe a move to review the policy will be ‘suicidal’ on the activities of the trading community.
In 2019, government in a bid to curb the incidents of smuggling and boost revenue generation at the country’s ports slashed the benchmark values for all imports by 50 percent with the exception of vehicle duties which was later reduced by 30 percent.