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The Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Alan Kyerematen, has stated that effective September 1, 2018, tax stamps would be applied to the retailing, wholesaling and distribution of textile prints.

He said every textile print from the beginning of September that would be sold in the country would have a tax stamp.

This, he said would help ensure that all the textile prints that were coming into this country without the payment of the right duties and taxes would now become something of the past, and would also provide a means of verification and identification.

Mr Kyerematen said this at a town hall meeting with stakeholders in the textile industry to discuss modalities for implementing a road map that would sensitise the sector.

He said the meeting was also to allow stakeholders to engage and arrive at a consensus to support the sector, through deliberations on the issues before them in a spirit of unity and collaboration and in a constructive manner.

According to the Minister, it was part of a consensus derived after independently engaging the various stakeholders one on one to find out whether they could chart a new course for supporting the revival of the sector. 

“We have therefore had an extensive engagement with the manufacturers for the last three or four months, the mother unions, local representative of the various manufacturing companies, retail sector.

“We would have a transitional period of three months to allow the Ministry of Finance to engage the manufacturers to ensure that when they are introduced, there would be no bottlenecks in terms of the role outs.

“Between now and August, it is our hope that all retailers of textile prints would arrange to ensure that any stock that they have would be cleared,” he said.

The sector Minister added that all those with imported textile prints in the pipe line, would be afforded the opportunity to have the goods arrive and cleared and also sold within this period.

He said the textile sector had played a significant role in the country for several decades, being a major source of employment creation and income generation for many people, particularly those engaged in the retail trade.

He said it had also stimulated the development of the cotton sector in the past and so if there was one sector in the country that had the potential to transform the industrial landscape, it would be the textile sector.

“We are all aware of the importance of this sector. It has been confronted with significant challenges over the last couple of decades which has resulted in collapsing the sector literally and as a caring government, we deem it a very important responsibility not to allow this critical sector in the economy to continue facing these challenges,” he said.