The Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Dr. Anthony Yaw Baah, has described the state of Ghana’s economy as abnormal.
According to him the high inflation and interest rates is making it very difficult for employers to expand their business to employ more people.
“Inflation remains very high, interest rate is abnormally high, probably the highest in the world. That doesn’t help our employers to borrow money form the banks. If you have a situation in the country where it is only the banks that are making profit, it is not normal.”
“If you live in country like that, how can businesses borrow money, invest, and make profit, so they can expand? They can’t. We live in a very abnormal economy and we are hoping that things change for us, because we are suffering as workers of Ghana,” he added.
Dr. Anthony Yaw Baah made the comment when he addressed a meeting between the TUC and flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party Nana Akufo-Addo, when the latter paid a courtesy call on the workers’ union today.
For his part, Nana Addo used the opportunity to tell the union about his party’s vision of saving the Ghanaian economy if given the chance on December 7, 2016.
“We will put in place a “systematic, focused effort to restructure the Ghanaian economy – to take it out from just being a raw material producing economy, to an economy that is based on value addition, industrial activity and wealth creation.
He further assured of his government resolve to reduce what he said are unnecessary taxes.
“We intend to abolish duties on the imports of raw materials and manufacturing equipment. We are going to abolish VAT on real estate transactions, and reduce VAT for micro and small enterprises from the current 17.5% to the 3% Flat Rate VAT introduced by the NPP. All these are being put in place to stimulate production, which will address the issue of unemployment, job losses and also for the rapid development of our economy,” he added.
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin