The CEO of the Public Sector Reforms Secretariat, Mr Thomas Kusi-Boafo, has said the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) deserves to be in office for twenty years to totally transform Ghana with good policies.
He told Kwabena Prah Jnr (the Don) on Ghana Yensom on Accra100.5FM, that the Akufo-Addo administration has prepared the grounds for a prosperous future for the nation.
Ghanaians, he said, cannot afford to give the mandate to the National Democratic Congress (NDC), who, in his view, are not capable of managing the affairs of the nation.
His comments follow Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s lecture at the Economic Management Team town hall meeting on Wednesday, 3 April 2019 at which he made some major policy announcements including the slashing by 50% the benchmark value of imports. Also, import duties on cars, Dr Bawumia announced, have been cut by 30%.
“The NPP needs to be in office for twenty years to totally transform Ghana,” he said.
In his Wednesday lecture, Dr Bawumia said these reforms are part of measures to deal with smuggling at the various entry points into the country as well as assist businesses in Ghana.
“To reduce the incidence of smuggling and enhance revenue, the benchmark delivery value of imports will be reduced by 50 per cent,” Dr Bawumia said at a town hall meeting in Accra.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, last week, indicated that reforms to Ghana’s import duty regime, which are expected to bring down the high duties prevailing at Ghana’s ports, were in the offing, and would be rolled out soon.
With some business groups having petitioned the state to intervene and review the high taxes and duties on imported items, Nana Akufo-Addo assured the business community that the government is already in the process of dealing with the matter.
“We have realised from the studies we have done that our ports are not competitive, and the import regime in our country is far too high. We are dealing with it, and, very soon, the measures that the government will roll out will become known to all of you. I am not talking next year, or in 6 months’ time, I am talking very, very soon,” he said.
Nana Akufo-Addo made this known on Saturday, 30 March 2019, when he addressed a town hall meeting of Ghanaians resident in Worcester, Massachusetts, in the United States of America, as part of his visit to that country.
Indeed, some trader unions, including the Ghana Union of Traders Associations (GUTA), have petitioned the state to intervene and review the high taxes and duties on imported items.
Paperless reduces port charges
Already, the introduction of the paperless port system has, according to the Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, reduced the cost of doing business at the ports.
Appearing before parliament to answer a question posed by MP for the Adaklu constituency, Mr Kwame Agbodza, on whether or not the introduction of the paperless port has increased the cost of doing business at the ports, the minister indicated that the initiative has rather decreased the cost of doing business.
“The results (of the Paperless Port system) showed that the cost components of doing business at the country’s ports have reduced from 7 to 3 cost components. This has, subsequently, reduced the total costs from GHS1,280 to GHS320,” Mr Ofori-Atta said.
He continued, “This means that the paperless system reduced the cost of doing business at the ports by GHS960 representing 75 per cent savings. Hence, importers are now making savings of 75 per cent as a result of the implementation of the paperless system.”
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
