Prices of goods in the country are expected to go up following the unilateral decision of the Ghana Union Traders Association (GUTA) to transfer costs incurred in freight charges at the port to consumers.
Already, prices of goods and services have gone up on the back of ever-increasing costs of fuel at the pumps due to increments in the price of crude oil on the international market.
The country’s trading community over some weeks now have expressed displeasure over the recent hike in import duties charged by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) on freight charges which have also skyrocketed over the past few months.
Assigning reasons for the recent freight rates hike at the nation’s seaports, Head of Freight and Logistics at the Ghana Shippers’ Authority (GSA), Fred Dartey disclosed that hike in freight rates at the nation’s seaports is not new as that has been the trend since last year 2020 due to global shortage in containers for goods shipment due to the Covid pandemic.
According to him, global shortage of containers was first triggered at the beginning of the second quarter of 2020 when orders for goods shipment from China exceeded available boxes for shipments.
The shortage of containers was further compounded by the fact that boxes from China was locked up in other countries due to lockdowns implemented by governments across the globe.
Presently, a 40 footer container imported from China for instance costs between $12,000 and $13,800 in freight charges from the figure of $3,600 in June 2020. In addition to the high cost of freight, the GRA has reviewed import duties charged importers to reflect the increment in freight rate thereby making costs incurred at the Ports unbearable for traders.
Speaking on the Association’s decision to transfer the high costs to Ghanaian consumers, Dr Joseph Obeng divulged that, traders at the moment are in a state of helplessness.
“Traders are in a state of helplessness, so we definitely have to pass on the cost to consumers, although that is not the solution to the problem because doing so can cause consumers to become fatigued and affect our businesses and possibly collapse our businesses but we have no other choice [sic],” he uttered.
