Government has reduced benchmark values on percentage discount for the trading community in the country.
Benchmark on all goods has been reduced to 30 percent and 10 percent for vehicles contrary to initial discount of 50 percent which was applied on the benchmark values of selected goods, while a 30 percent discount which was applied on vehicles.
The new changes will take effect from March 1, 2022.
The reduction happened after months of agitations and weeks of consultations with stakeholders in the trading community on the benchmark values reduction policy.
It is believed that the current reduction will allow for a win-win situation for all parties involved.
Deputy Minister of Finance, Abena Osei Asare, who confirmed the decision to Accra based radio station after a final meeting between the Finance Ministry and the concerned parties on Tuesday, February 22, 2022.
“Several meetings had gone on between the Trade Ministry, GUTA, and AGI and as part of the consensus that we have built with all the stakeholders, the reversal of benchmark values is going to be graduated. It’s not going to be a complete reversal. With the first phase, all goods are going to be reduced from the 50% discount to a 30% discount. The benchmark values were on two things; some selected goods and vehicles. But this time, we are placing the discount on all goods and that of vehicles, from 30% to10%.
“When the Minister for Finance engaged the stakeholders on Tuesday, they welcomed what government has done because they realized that government had indeed listened to them and, as a result, come up with something that will best serve all parties.”
She was optimistic that this new development will help the government and the Ghana Revenue Authority meet the GH¢80.3 billion revenue target for the year 2022.
“What I can say is that it’s going to help us achieve our GH¢80.3 billion revenue target set out in the 2022 budget. So we look forward to it. We’ll give them all the support that they need to enable them to implement it, and to be guided by what we have done. At the end of it all, it is Ghana that will benefit.”
The policy has, since its inception, received varied views among players within the port and trading industry.
When the government in 2019 announced the decision to reduce benchmark values for some general goods by 50% and 30% on cars, the idea was to increase volumes of traffic at the port and ultimately increase government revenue.
While importers and exporters, freight forwarders as well as the Ghana Union of Traders’ Association praised the government for the decision to reduce the cost of doing business, groups such as the Association of Ghanaian industries were concerned about the impact on the competitiveness of their products.
But government nonetheless went ahead with its implementation.
Two years down the line, the government announced the reversal of the benchmark value reduction policy in the 2022 budget and set January 4 as the implementation date of the policy.
That was met with stiff resistance from the trading community, with GUTA hinting of a 50% increment in the cost of goods and services if the policy was implemented.
On January 4, however, business came to a standstill at the ports as freight forwarders who had made their declarations and accepted their duties could not proceed to make payments.
This led to a temporary postponement of the date to January 6 and later to January 17 for stakeholder engagements.
The Presidency subsequently suspended it and gave the GRA a January 17 deadline to consult on the matter.
By Vincent Kubi