Finance Minister to meet GUTA and IEAG today
Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, is expected to meet the leadership of Ghana Union of Traders Association [GUTA] and Importers and Exporters Association of Ghana [IEAG] later today over the scrapping of the benchmark value policy on the 43 selected items.
The meeting is expected to iron out all challenges resulting from the implementation of the policy.
The two groups have kicked against the implementation of the reversal of the benchmark policy which was initially targeted at reducing import duties on those items.
The implementation of the policy which began on Tuesday January 4, had to be suspended for two days beginning January 6, 2022.
Read: Deferred implementation of reversed benchmark values ends today
President of GUTA, Dr. Joseph Obeng, expressed worry over the reversal of the policy saying that, it will lead to astronomical increase in price of goods on the market.
“The import is going to be huge and its not going to be comfortable because we have been able to contain most of the impact that we are going through, most of the effect of the global effect of the pandemic.
In terms of the world commodity prices going up, in terms of the freight chargers going up, and all that, we are able to contain these price, don’t also forget that the exchange rate is also at the roof, going up and so how are you going to manage all these things and then we think that we will not pass on this to the consumer”, he said.
