Workshop On Energy Opens

The Energy Commission was on Tuesday asked to speed up the completion of the renewable energy bill, to ensure its passage into law to promote investment in the sector. Mr Andrew Baffour, Project Co-ordinator of Ghana Energy Development and Access Project, who made the call, said the passage of the law would offer private sector players the fiscal incentive to invest.

Besides it will provide government the legal basis to radically address the problems hindering growth of the renewable energy industry. Mr Baffour was speaking at a workshop organised by the Association of Ghana Solar Industries (AGSI) to draw up proposals to government on the review of taxes on imported solar products and components. Government envisages that by 2020 renewable energy will constitute 10 per cent of the country's energy mix.

On the tax exemptions being required by the industry, Mr Baffour said the Ministry of Energy was discussing with the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) and the Ministry of Finance to address the uneven application of duty exemption for solar energy equipment. Currently, industries in the sector only qualify for exemption for their solar equipment, when they are being used under the rural electrification scheme.

Mr Baffour explained that the current coding system used by CEPS made the application of the duty exemption very difficult. He said the code did not make any distinction between solar and kerosene lanterns, and therefore made it difficult to apply for the exemptions. Mr Baffour said the government was working to identify the list that should be added as duty-exempt under the existing codes, to make a case for the tax immunity.

He therefore asked AGSI to work with the Energy Commission to come up with a list of products that should be identified as tax-exempt together with an analysis of revenue that would be lost to the state for discussion and possible inclusion in the 2010 budget. Mr Omane Frimpong, Vice President of AGSI, said the requirement that imported solar components should be in a single container before qualifying for tax exemption was impractical, since various parts were being sourced from different destinations.

He said solar industries should also benefit from the exemptions that were being extended to rural electrification projects and called for the promulgation of a law to that effect. Mr Chris Munteanuu, Chief Executive Officer of DENG, a solar energy company, called for incentives that would encourage local companies to manufacture solar components locally.

This, he said, was important if government was to achieve the 10 per cent renewable energy mix by the target date of 2020. There was also the need for education and awareness creation to encourage the public to switch to the use of solar systems at home and work places. Professor Abeeku Brew Hammond of the Energy Commission said work on the bill would be completed by the end of the year.