Reviewing benchmark value policy wrong, Rice Millers Association
Keep monies meant for cushioning importers, Rice millers to government
Ghana Rice Millers Association has kicked against government's decision to put a 30% discount on general goods and a 19% discount on imported vehicles into the country after some members of the trading community fought against the scrapping of the benchmark value policy.
According to the Convenor of the Association, Yaw Adu Poku, the reviewed benchmark value policy contradicts government's industrialization agenda.
He furthered that the scrapping of the discount will promote made-in-Ghana goods especially rice as most Ghanaians will choose that over foreign goods.
This, he said, will help boost the local economy and make it more resilient stating that it will help government retain the extra revenue that would have been spent on cushioning importers.
In an interview with Citi Business News, Mr Poku said, “The country needs the kind of attitude where that one billion dollar worth of rice that is imported into the country should shift to the local economy, that will immediately put about seven to eight billion cedis into the Ghanaian economy, and it will go all the way to from the farmer to the distributor, just imagine it and then the pride of eating your own made in Ghana rice, a variety that has been improved upon by the academicians. Let the people feel proud eating made in Ghana rice.”
“The association is writing a statement that we will bring out. We are not in any opposition to government; we are not trying to fight the government. We are simply telling the government that it is not a good policy, so scrap it and keep the revenue it is giving away,” he added.
On Wednesday, February 23, 2022, the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) announced the revised rate of the benchmark value policy.
The benchmark values on imports have been reduced from 50% to 30% on general goods and 30% to 10% on vehicles.
The reduction comes after a consensus between Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta and the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA), Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Institute of Freight Forwarders the Ghana Revenue Authority.
Fil photo: Rice