The General Secretary of the General Agricultural Workers’ Union (GAWU), Edward Kareweh, has disclosed that the benchmark value policy which has been removed by government was not a well thought through policy.
According to him, it has failed to achieve what it originally intended to and possibly, there is the tendency that it may never have achieved its purpose for which it was introduced. He indicated that so long as demand for the benchmark value remained the same at that time and the mere fact that there was a reduction in the duty on import did not “necessarily mean that prices will fall in the market”.
Mr Kareweh explained that it was rather noted that importers took advantage of the benchmark policy to cash in at the expense of the government’s expectation of domestic prices of goods decreasing.
“Because the importers are rational beings, and once they are rational beings, you don’t expect them not to cash in on the demand at the time and then the low cost to maximize profit. So, in that form, [to] some of us it was not a well thought through policy because the objective it ought to achieve, from the onset one could see that it was not achievable”.
Mr Kareweh
Mr Kareweh revealed that concerning its reversal, there are implications for it. He explained that implications are that prices of imports will go up and when that happens, the general agricultural system which is part of the economy will affect agricultural production.
Vehicle and Assets Dealers’ Union bemoan scrapping of benchmark value
On his part, Frank Atanley Kofigah, General Secretary of the Vehicle and Assets Dealers’ Union, questioned whether the country “manufactures vehicles in Ghana”, especially if the government is looking at scrapping the 30% benchmark or bringing it back.
“How will it help industrialization in terms of the automobile market and how will government rake in the revenue desired to help that sector?”
Frank Atanley Kofigah
Mr Kofigah described as counterintuitive the move to scrap the benchmark value on car importations considering the country can barely boast of an automobile industry.
“As other countries are giving incentives and measures to industry and small scale and medium scale enterprises, to thrive… what are we seeing? We are seeing a full blown 30% and 50% being reintroduced”.
Mr Kofigah
He decried government’s prioritization of foreign businesses in the automotive industry as against the local businesses, he expressed that these local businesses contribute to the growth of the country’s economy. GAWU GAWU GAWU
“Now if you look at the automotive policy that brought in various brands from Europe to start assembling plants, government says that there is the need to boost investor confidence – the reason tax holidays were given, you have all these vehicles and imports coming in with no duty, they come in, sell these vehicles at high prices and at the end of the day [and] they repatriate their profits. The Vehicle and Assets Dealers’ Union contributes 90% to the total import of vehicles that come into this country. Those into the brand new sector contribute only 10%. So, majority of the revenue that comes in through these exit ports from the automobile sector is from the Vehicle and Assets Dealers’ Union and our members are scattered across the country”.
Mr Kofigah
