The decision by the government, through the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), to reverse the benchmark value is a terrible decision, according to Sammy Gyamfi, the National Democratic Congress’s (NDC) National Communications Officer. The decision comes at a time when the cedi is depreciating and world commodity prices are rising at an alarming rate, with freight and port handling charges being extremely high.
“The callous decision by government to reverse benchmark value discounts comes at a time when Ghanaian businesses, startups, parents, and households are reeling under a yoke of excessive taxation, persistent increases in fuel prices, and high cost of living never before seen in our country’s annals,” he added.
The reversal affects 143 goods that fall within one of the Ghana Revenue Authority’s three categories.
For several commodities, the benchmark value, which is the amount taxable on imports, was cut by 50%. The government thought that by increasing the volume of transactions, Ghana’s ports would become more competitive.
After facing resistance from the Association of Ghana Industries and the Ghana Union of Traders Association, the government decided to reverse its decision (GUTA).
“What the decision to reverse benchmark value discounts effectively means is that prices of the affected items, such as vehicles and spare parts, machinery, equipment and plants, aluminum finished products (roofing sheets), portland cement, cement paper bags, and clinker, poultry, animal products (meat), fish, rice, sugar, pasta, spaghetti, noodles and macaroni, pharmaceuticals (includi) will rise,” Sammy Gyamfi said at a press conference in Accra on Wednesday, January 5.
“These increases, which will eventually be passed on to Ghanaians, would drive up the cost of basic products and services in the country, exacerbating the tremendous challenges that Ghanaians are already experiencing.” This will ultimately raise the cost of doing business in the country, have a detrimental impact on business turnover and trade volume, and result in the closure of numerous firms and employment.
In fact, given the numerous draconian taxes imposed by the callous Akufo-Addo/Bawumia/NPP government since April 2019, as well as the ongoing depreciation of the Ghana Cedi, which is already eroding profit margins and capital, importers and Ghanaians in general will be worse off as a result of this decision. In short, because of the ongoing wild collapse of the Cedi and the plethora of new debilitating tax policies that the government has enacted since April 2019, import tariffs will be substantially higher than they were before April 2019, when the benchmark value reductions were established.”
