President of the Association of Custom House Agents of Ghana [ACHAG], Yaw Kyei has revealed that the reduction in import duties that has become the norm of the day will not make prices of imported products decrease as envisaged.
Yaw Kyei said most of the importers have complained about how they have been pressurized to reduce prices on products they import to sell, yet the reduction in their settings is not as citizens understand.
He mentioned that “the 50% import duties on some 73 listed items and 30% on used vehicles only would have been of great value than is realized at the ports today had government involved us in its discussions proceeding to the said reduction”.
The ACHAG President on UTV’s ‘Mpu ne Mpu’ discussion urged that it is too early for citizens to jubilate over the reduction on the said import duties because it is not that beneficial but complicated to work with.
“There is one important thing citizens must get clear under this import decline, it is only benchmark values that have been reduced and not import values because import values remain as they are,” he insisted.
Yaw Kyei praised the Vice-President on his excessive mechanisms put in place to ensure quality in all aspects of port services, especially the paperless system introduced, and advised he engages stakeholders in his meetings to help tackle the practical problems at the ports.
According to him, Togo ports of which most Ghanaian importers transport their goods through is cheaper than charges charged at our ports; therefore it will serve the state a lot of benefits if government should learn from them the mechanisms that have led to their cheaper port charges.
Source: Elizabeth Semiheva Bedi/Peacefmonline.com
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