Ghanaian businessman and presidential aspirant, Nana Kwame Bediako, popularly known as Cheddar has promised to eliminate excessive taxes imposed on traders if elected President in the upcoming December 7 elections.
According to him, many of these taxes are unnecessary and burden the trading community heavily.
Mr Bediako made these comments during an introductory meeting with the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) in Accra.
“I can’t stand here and say that I’ll create free taxes once you start trading, but definitely I’ll look into it and make it reasonable overnight. Because there’s no point if that’s the only job we have as part of the nation, thus, importing from other countries then at the end of the day, we spend 60 or 70% and by the time we sell, the 30% profit we’re supposed to make is gone either by interest from what we borrowed or by just living the hard life. So, I would revise the taxes.”
He also mentioned plans to impose embargoes on foreign traders operating within the country, to ensure that wealth generated remains within Ghana.
“I want to infuse industrialization into your trading, that a lot of things that you go to China to bring would be made here and you would be able to distribute it. But before I implement that plan, I’d have to place an embargo for you traders by stopping the outsiders who are invading your trading in the country,” he said.
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On his part, the President of the GUTA, Dr. Joseph Obeng, highlighted the challenges traders face.
Notable among those mentioned were the exchange rate of the dollar against the cedi and the high charges within the current duty system.
“Our major concern as businesses now are with exchange rates. If there’s no stability in your currency, you cannot even industrialize because your products are not competitive in the sub-region. So, there’s a need therefore that we do everything to stabilize our currency. Our capital is being spirited away and now we have crossed the threshold of 15 cedis to a dollar.
“We are also proposing that our tax and duty system be simplified and thrown down to the bare minimum to make tax payment affordable and that will ensure compliance”.