Smartphone Dealers Hail Gov�t

IMPORTERS OF smartphones at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle have praised government for declaring that importation of smartphones into the country will be tax-free from next year. Presenting the 2015 budget statement and economic policy to Parliament last Wednesday, the Minister for Finance, Seth Terkper revealed that taxes on the importation of smartphones will be scrapped and said it was part of the plan to promote smart mobile phone dealing in the country. Upon hearing the news, DAILY HERITAGE took the opportunity to interact with some local smartphone dealers at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra to listen to their views. The paper observed that majority of them were happy with the owner of Lucky Phones, who only gave his name as Yaw, telling the paper that he was very happy upon hearing the news and said it will boost business. He further stated that the tax reduction on smartphones should reflect when they go to the market, saying "If only it will reflect when we're importing them, then government has taken a good decision. "Sometimes they say that and when we get to the market to buy the goods it does not reflect. So they should let it show when we're going to buy them," he told the paper. He added that �If the dollar is not stable then there will be no use to remove the tax on the importation of the phones because we buy them in dollars. The dollar is what matters to us.� Kwame Bamfoh, a dealer in mobile phones, also told the paper that people were not patronizing the phones because they thought it was very expensive. He was of the opinion that the reduction of tax on smartphones will reduce the price which will help their business. �It will help us. It will help business to improve because the prices will go down and they will buy and we will get our profit. �Government has showed us that he thinks about us and I don�t think anyone can say that what government is planning to do is a bad idea.� Also speaking to the paper, Rocky, also a mobile phone dealer at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, indicated that government could do many more by reducing the price of fuel too since it also affected their sales. �If they reduce the price of fuel, it will help both the buyers and the sellers because they (buyers) could save a lot of money to come and buy,� he stated.