{"id":209335,"date":"2016-04-25T11:31:09","date_gmt":"2016-04-25T11:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=209335"},"modified":"2016-04-25T11:31:09","modified_gmt":"2016-04-25T11:31:09","slug":"scrapping-duties-on-raw-materials-import-unattainable-mp-to-bawumia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=209335","title":{"rendered":"Scrapping import duties on raw materials impossible \u2013 MP to Bawumia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chairman of Parliament\u2019s Finance Committee, James Klutse Avedzi has hit hard at the Vice Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party; Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia over the latter\u2019s assertions that an NPP government will scrap taxes<\/strong><\/a><\/span> on imported raw materials and manufacturing equipment.<\/p>\n

He contends that such a decision will affect government\u2019s revenue and stifle economic growth.<\/p>\n

[contextly_sidebar id=”UT2h0J510RD4jOpiLFm19pu5yfyBcYB8″]Dr. Bawumia on his USA tour had promised that should his party win the November polls, taxes on imported raw materials and manufacturing equipment will be scrapped to boost local production and create more jobs.<\/p>\n

But James Avedzi told Citi News<\/strong> the policy is unattainable.<\/p>\n

“If companies are going to produce in this country; they don\u2019t need to import anything. What are they going to import?\u00a0 Very few inputs so what is the import issue that he is talking about and that he is going to exempt those companies, what kind of argument is that?”<\/p>\n

He explained that government is instead \u201cencouraging companies to produce here so that we will reduce importation\u201d so as to reduce the cost of products since importing the finished products into the country \u201cmake the cost of these products expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Bawumia while speaking at a fundraising event being organized by some chapters of the NPP USA branch in Houston\u00a0outlined a number of policies an NPP government would introduce including the scrapping of all import duties on raw materials.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have focused a lot on revenue generation at the expense of production. The focus of government after government has been on taxation and very little on the incentives for production and if you \u00a0get into that you are really creating an engine for unemployment and I am not surprised that the unemployment issue is not tackled because we have focused a lot on taxation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we want to do in Ghana is to create the most business friendly and the most people friendly economy in Africa, that is the goal. Once you set that goal, you know what your competitors are up to,\u201d the economist argued.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

By: Godwin A. Allotey\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
\nFollow @AlloteyGodwin<\/a>
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