Gov’t suspends GRA VAT invigilation exercise aimed at getting GUTA to open shops
A Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Michael Okyere Baafi has hinted that government has made some concessions with the Ghana Union and Traders Association (GUTA) in an effort to get businesses back on stream, chief among them is the suspension of the invigilation exercise being conducted by the Ghana Revenue Authority.
Members of the GUTA in Accra have closed down their shops in a nationwide protest over high taxes and difficulty in doing business. For them, their decision to halt commercial activities is based on the exorbitant tax rates and the continuous depreciation of the local currency against the US dollar.
This, the traders say, is adversely affecting their businesses and depleting their capital and profit margins.
However, speaking to journalists in an interview on the sidelines of GEA’s Covid-19 Response Grant Programme in Accra, he said, “Government has made a lot of concessions, at least one of them being the suspension of the invigilation being conducted by the Ghana Revenue Authority, that is enormous -government was going to raise a lot of revenue from that exercise but GUTA says they don’t want it. We engage whiles we still do business, that is the way to go.
The way to go now is for these people to come together and set up businesses in Ghana to manufacture all those things that they import to Ghana, that will help the country to grow and overcome challenges we are going through now.”
He also revealed that the central bank and the finance ministry have agreed on a rate -which will be knocked down for the next three months, specifically for the traders in order for them to undertake their custom activities [payment of duties].
“These are some of the things we are doing and they are aware of it, so if government is making concessions, it is very good for GUTA and its allied bodies to also reciprocate in a good way, not this [current] way.”
The ongoing protest comes at a time when there is public outcry about the state of affairs in the country, and the failure of government to address the growing economic decline.
The current economic decline is reflected in the depreciation of the Cedi as well as government’s fiscal deficits and the nation’s ballooning debt stock.
