The Marketing Director of Tex Styles Company Ghana Limited (GTP), Reverend Stephen K. Badu has appealed to the government to expedite action on the introduction of tax stamp on textiles.
Speaking in an interview with the Times Business in Accra yesterday, he said the introduction of tax stamp would ensure that manufacturers of prints and textiles paid the appropriate taxes on their products.
He also opined that the introduction of tax stamp for the print and textile industry would also differentiate their products from “imported counterfeit textiles which are mostly smuggled into the country”.
“We have been fighting for its introduction since 2017 and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has agreed to do so during the second phase of the exercise,” he said.
Rev. Badu indicated that records from Customs showed that only a container of fabric (less than a million yards) was imported into the country, arguing that “this indicated that more of the fabrics on the market are smuggled in or come through unapproved routes so no taxes are paid on them.”
Rev. Badu appealed to government to exempt the textile industry from Value Added Tax for the interim and bring them back only after the introduction of the tax stamp.
That, he contended, would help reduce the cost of local prints by 17.5 per cent.
“Many Ghanaians think local textiles are costly compared to the counterfeit ones smuggled into the country, without consideration for employment creation, payment of taxes and other costs that increase our cost of production,” he said.
The counterfeit textiles on the market, he alleged were printed from China and they are shipped to Togo before being smuggled into the country through canoes and on motorcycles to places like Keta, Dzodze, Ada and Sankasi.
Rev. Badu entreated the government to allow the taskforce formed to fight counterfeit textiles to go to the wholesale points in the markets to inspect and seize textile prints on which taxes have not been paid.
“Unfortunately the government has not allowed the taskforce to go to the markets, rather it wants the16 member taskforce comprising representatives from textiles companies, Ghana Standards Authority, Police and other organisations to go to the borders to patrol and check the smuggling of textiles and we cannot do that as customs which are well trained for the purpose are at post,” he said.
He urged Ghanaians to patronise textiles produced in Ghana, and said “by so doing local companies will enjoy economies of scale to reduce their cost of production like the developed countries”.
Rev. Badu advised the populace to report people who smuggle counterfeit textile into the country for them to be arrested, saying informants who gave hints for textile smugglers to be arrested would be handsomely rewarded.
From Godfred B. Gibbah, Tema
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