Benchmark value reversal: Food and Beverages Ass. laments lack of stakeholder consultation

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The Food and Beverages Association has bemoaned the absence of partner conference in regards to the public authority’s choice to switch the half benchmark esteem decrease strategy on exactly 43 chose things.

The Association, alongside the Ghana Union of Traders Association, has cautioned that shoppers will before long be paying more for fundamental wares impacted by the arrangement inversion like rice, sugar, water, bread rolls and sodas.

The inversion of the arrangement, which was to be executed on Tuesday, has been conceded to Thursday to permit shippers who got their obligation bill before the underlying execution date to pay for and clear their merchandise.

In any case, addressing Citi Business News, the Executive Secretary of the Food and Beverages Association, Samuel Aggrey, says the public authority should in any case reexamine its choice

“The circumstance as it is currently is the most appalling strategy on the grounds that these are food items that everyone purchases consistently. Presently when you take a gander at this and the public authority being so unfeeling in acquiring the strategy right now, this multitude of items will go up nearly between 30 to 50 percent or considerably more. So we would wish that they reconnected partners on this issue prior to coming out with it.”

“Since, in such a case that the public authority says they’ve met partners, that wouldn’t be valid on the grounds that when we met the Deputy Minister for Trade, we were unable to have any convincing gathering so we don’t know which partners that they met to take this choice. Assuming they met AGI, then, at that point, I would say that it is lamentable for them to require the execution of the inversion of the benchmark esteems since, in such a case that they had good intentions for the business and for Ghanaians, they would prefer to battle for the things that are influencing the business.”

Call for a deferment of implementation of revised benchmark policy

The Importers and Exporters Association of Ghana is calling for a minimum of a 14-day deferment of the implementation of the reversal of the reduction in benchmark values policy by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).

The deferment of the implementation of the reversal of the reduction in benchmark values policy comes after some freight forwarders encountered challenges paying duties to facilitate the clearing of their goods at the port on Tuesday, January 4, 2022.

According to a message to freight forwarders cited by Citi Business News, among other things, effective Thursday, 6th January 2022 any declaration not yet entered, that is where duty and taxes have not yet been paid, will be affected by the revised policy. It added that a post entry will be required to enable recalculation of the taxes based on the policy.

But in an interview with Citi Business News, about the deferment, the Executive Secretary of the Importers and Exporters Association of Ghana, Samson Asaki Awingobit said importers needed more time.