Traders Advocacy Group Ghana has welcomed the proposal to invite the International Monetary Fund, IMF to help restructure Ghana’s VAT system, emphasising that many traders still do not understand its components.
According to the General Secretary of the Group, Nana Poku, there is the need for broader engagements with the Finance Ministry to address trade concerns, particularly the high cost of imported goods due to existing port levies.
He noted that whilst the budget touched on some economic relief measures, it fell short of addressing critical trade issues.
“Traders were looking at the issues concerning VAT, today most traders and business people do not understand tax components. And it is not the first time that we are telling the authorities of this. So it is good if an IMF will be invited to come and restructure the VAT system for us to expand it for more people to pay.”
” We did not hear a lot about port issues. Ghana is an importing country, because the factories that are supposed to produce the commodities are not in place yet. Some of the commodities we use every day are imported.
The budget should have addressed issues pertaining to trade, if not, still commodities will be high on the market,”
