Alan Kyerematen
The Ministry of Trade and Industry will introduce tax stamps for locally manufactured and imported textiles from November 15 to help curb widespread piracy of Ghanaian textile logos and designs.
Minister of Trade and Industry, Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, disclosed this in Parliament on Wednesday in response to a question posed by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Tamale Central, Inusah Fuseini, as to steps the ministry was taking to control piracy.
Mr Kyerematen indicated that the Tema Port had been chosen as the single dedicated entry corridor for all imported textile products.
“We will be implementing a textile import management system to coordinate all import of textiles, including the vetting of designs and logos,” he said.
The minister told Parliament that the ministry would provide support and incentives to local manufacturers to improve their competitiveness and continue the market surveillance exercise by the Textile Taskforce to monitor compliance with the new measures.
According to the Trade Minister, the textile sector in Ghana had been confronted with very significant challenges over the last three decades, including piracy of indigenous designs and logo of wax prints in addition to non-payment of duties and taxes on imported textile prints.
He said in 2016, government realized GH¢1.7 million from duties on imported textile as against a projected revenue of GH¢56 million.
“Mr Speaker, the unfair trade practices in the textile sector has literally collapsed local manufacturing companies leading to a significant reduction in the number of employees in the sector from a record high of 30,000 in the early 1990s to the current level of less than 5,000,” he said.
He added that owing to the development, the Ministry on June 1, 2018 initiated a nationwide stakeholder consultation exercise in Accra to develop a comprehensive and integrated reform programme to provide a lasting solution to the problem.
By Thomas Fosu Jnr