Clement Boateng, vice-president of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) has expressed the group’s resolve to dialogue with the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) to enhance the local manufacturing sector.
This comes on the back of President Akufo Addo’s directive to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to halt the planned implementation of the government’s policy directive on the reversal of the reduction in benchmark values on selected items.
In an interview with Asaase Business, Boateng said GUTA will be ready to market such local raw materials for the benefit of local industries.
He said: “where they (AGI) have a comparative advantage and raw materials will not be difficult to come by, because some of the materials that they even use in their production is imported but with the government’s 1D1F, the government is trying to locate factories where raw materials are easily accessible so that production cost will be low without importing raw materials from outside.”
“So, whatever goods we want the association of Ghana industries to produce, they should be able to find raw materials locally. We (GUTA) are ready to sit down with them (AGI), have a stakeholder engagement, identify items that we think they can produce locally so that we patronize and sell those goods for them,” he stated
Meanwhile, Boateng said the current development to suspend the reversal of the benchmark values will boost activities at the ports and impact the government’s revenue maximization.
According to him, the current situation is good for the business community, and looking forward to the stakeholder engagement as requested by the president.
“I think it is welcome news to the trading public and the business community because this is what we have been crying for. There was a stakeholder meeting with the finance minister and after the meeting, the finance minister did not really stick his neck out but promised us that we’ll hear from him.”
“We were looking for a total suspension of the reversal for us to go back to the stakeholder engagement until we find a common ground. So, when we heard the news that the president has asked them to suspend the reversal, it was welcome news and we’re all looking forward to that stakeholder engagement,” he stated.
