The National Democratic Congress, NDC on Wednesday, the 5th of January 2022 had a press conference on the reversal of the benchmark value discounts on imported goods at the NDC Headquarters, Adabraka. The conference which began at 2pm with Sammy Gyamfi, the National Communications Officer being the main speaker addressed the house. Sammy Gyamfi poured his heart out on the decision the government has made on the reversal of the benchmark value and its effects on the importers and Ghanaians as a whole. He said;
The callous decision by government to reverse the benchmark value come at a time Ghanaian businesses, startups, parents and households are living under a yoke of excessive taxation, persistent increase in fuel prices and high cost of living which has never been witnessed in the annals of the country. What the reversal of the benchmark value discounts effectively means is that prices of the affected items such as general goods which was discounted by 50% and as a result of the reversal announced by the government, the import duty for poultry products has gone up by 50% meaning if you were importing a 20-footer container of frozen chicken and were paying Ghc10,000 last year, you will now be paying Ghc15,000. If you were paying Ghc20,000 you are now going to pay Ghc30,000 and so on.
Aside chicken, goods like, fish, rice, sugar, spaghetti, noodles, palm oils, crude and refined oils, aluminium finished products, roofing sheets, toilet paper, chocolate, mosquito coils and other general imported goods are going to be affected by 50% increment whiles cars attract 30% increment. This will in the long run affect the volume of trade in the country which can eventually lead to the collapse of many businesses and jobs.
It is not true that government has introduced this policy to support AGI and the local manufacturers but the reason for the policy to acquire more revenue because the government is broke as a result of wastage and now wants to collect more money from Ghanaians even though times are tough. This latest decision by government to reverse discounts on imported goods makes Bawumia the most deceitful political actor in Ghana’s history because in 2019 he said Ghana’s port was one of the most expensive in the subregion and that government has decided to introduce benchmark value discounts in order to cushion the Ghanaian, to facilitate more trade volumes, to make our ports more competitive and reduce smuggling and increase government’s revenue from the port.
This decision by the government is going to affect every Ghanaian and the effect is going to be felt in two to three weeks time.
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