Some owners at Adum closing their shops in protest
SHOPS IN the Business District (CBD) of Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional capital, have closed down since Monday morning.
Several shops in the boisterous community, especially at the famous Agyekum Building Area, where imported food commodities such as rice, cooking oil, noodles, biscuit and others are sold, remained locked.
Yesterday, electrical shops had also joined the fray when this paper visited the area.
The shop owners said they locked their shops because of an alleged 18.5% tax that the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) had imposed on imported food products.
According to them, the high taxes imposed on the imported food commodities was rapidly draining their profit margins and making them register losses.
They also attributed their plight to the rate at which the US dollars continued to rise against the Ghana cedis.
According to them, the fast cedi depreciation against the major currencies was adversely affecting their businesses.
Furthermore, they cited the general hardship and the high cost of living in the country in recent times, in an interview with DAILY GUIDE.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the shop owners lamented the rapid decline of their businesses in recent times.
They have however, called on the government should, to as a matter of urgency, intervene for the ‘killer’ taxes imposed on imported food products to be reduced.
The Kumasi businessmen and women added that they decided to lock their shops to draw the attention of the government to their unending challenges.
Their shops, they stated, would remain closed today too, until their grievances are addressed by the government.
FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi