Government
urged to involve all sections in trade
Government
urged to reduce Excise Rate
Ghana
Stock Exchange index re-bounces after dip
Ghana
losing $300 million yearly through accidents
Accra (Greater Accra)
24 April 2003 - Civil society organizations on Wednesday called on government
to involve all sections of the society in discussions on the multilateral
trading system to enhance participation and acceptance.
According to them
such a move would go a long way to ensure that the negotiated trade rules and
arrangements serve as instruments for building productive capacity, enhanced
employment and livelihoods and sustainable development.
The civil societies
were the Trades Union Congress, Ghana National Association of Poultry Farmers,
ISODEC, Action Aid-Ghana, Third World Network-Africa, Ghana Association of
Industries.
They were briefing
the press at the end of a two-day workshop on the multilateral trading system
and its implications for development at the national and sub-regional levels.
The workshop was to enable the various organizations to forge a common front in
addressing the key issues of trade imbalances within the World Trade
Organisation and also form an umbrella organization, the Ghana Trade Network,
to be able to influence trade policies.
Presenting the
position of the group, Kingsley Ofei Nkansah, Deputy General Secretary, Ghana
Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU), said the WTO agreements contained various
imbalances, which were to the advantage of the rich countries.
He said while the
agreement on agriculture effectively allows rich countries to maintain their
subsidies and tariff barriers on agricultural produce, developing countries had
dismantled such barriers and subsidies on agriculture.
Nkansah said
notwithstanding these inequities, industrialized countries were renewing their
efforts to introduce new issues into the WTO that threaten to undermine the
domestic productive capacity and national sovereignty.
These new issues
include investment liberalization, competition policy and government
procurement. Nkansah said the rich nations were seeking through these issues to
create a legal framework that would guarantee protection for their foreign
investors desirous to establish in developing countries for the sole purpose of
maximizing the rate of returns on capital.
Touching on the
ACP-EU trade negotiations under the new Economic Partnership for Africa,
Nkansah said most African countries would be unable to take advantage of the
free market of the EU because of weak productive capacities. "This is a
major flaw in the negotiations in that free trade arrangements involving the
dismantling of customs duties and tariff barriers will take away a substantial
source of government revenue," he said.
Nkansah said it was
important for African countries to remain united and not to allow themselves to
be influenced by multilateral trading negotiations to break their ranks.
"The unhealthy competition emanating from the rich industrialized countries
in the course of negotiating various trade and investment rules can only
undermine the integration process," he added.
GRi…/
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Government
urged to reduce Excise Rate
Takoradi (Western
Region) 24 April 2003- Dr Kobina Richardson, Chairman of the Board of Directors
of the British American Tobacco Ghana Limited, on Wednesday called on the
government to reduce the country's excise duty to enable the company to compete
fairly, remain viable, protect jobs and generate revenue for the government. He
was speaking at the 50th annual general meeting of the company in Takoradi.
Dr Richardson said
the wide disparity between Ghana's excise duty rate of 140 percent ex-factory
price against 8 percent to 30 percent in neighbouring countries continued to be
the "main driver" of smuggled cigarettes into the country with
negative effects on the company and the economy.
He said the
government rightly acknowledged in its 2003 budget statement that smuggling
accounts for as much as 10 percent of the cigarette market in Ghana. Dr
Richardson said this led to an estimated revenue loss of 25 billion cedis in
unpaid taxes.
He said the company's
sales volume declined by 9 point 7 percent on the previous year performance due
to the difficult economic conditions in Ghana and partly to the unfair
competition from low priced smuggled cigarette. Dr Richardson said the
company's contribution to government revenue from Excise duty and VAT amounted
to 174.8 billion cedis, representing a 15.9 percent increase in 2001.
Dr Richardson said
operating profit increased from 27.6 percent to 44.8 billion cedis due largely
to the company's pricing policy and effective management. James Idun-Ogde,
outgoing Managing Director of the Company, said the factory upgrade programme
started in 2002 involving installation of modern and faster equipment, is about
95 percent complete.
He said after the
last equipment is installed by the middle of June, the quality of the company's
products would improve. Idun-Ogde said the company intends to sustain its Youth
Smoking Prevention Campaign, which was launched two years ago and expressed the
hope that the government would pass a law banning cigarette sales to the
under-aged.
He said the company's
investment in national education development involving award of scholarships,
provision of funds for university projects and the establishment of a research
chair during 2002 totalled 420 million cedis.
Idun-Ogde said
beneficiaries included Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology,
which received 150 million cedis for the establishment of a research chair in
agro-forestry at its Institute of Renewable Natural Resources.
He said to
commemorate the company's golden jubilee it donated 100 million cedis seed
capital to the Western Regional Administration for the establishment of an
Educational Trust Fund for the region aimed at improving educational standards.
Idun-Ogde said 100 million cedis, was also donated to the University of Ghana
Jubilee Hall Fund.
GRi…/
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Ghana
Stock Exchange index re-bounces after dip
Accra (Greater Accra)
24 April 2003- The Ghana Stock Exchange All-Share Index, the key measure of the
Accra Bourse, re-bounced on Wednesday, climbing by 21.41 points after a dip of
5.15 points during the previous trading session.
The Index climbed to
1,738.84 points from 1,717.43 points on the strength of strong gains by
Standard Chartered Bank, British American Tobacco (BAT) and Unilever. Shares
traded climbed to 108,400 from 28,200 shares that changed hands in a dull
market on Tuesday.
There were four price
changes - all positive. Standard Chartered Bank, the highest priced equity,
jumped by 1,999 cedis to 34,000 cedis, BAT was 100 cedis better at 1,400 cedis,
Uniler gained 150 cedis at 6,450 cedis and Guinness Ghana Limited moved up by
five cedis at 1,223 cedis. Market capitalisation was better at 7,736.49 billion
cedis from 7,684.38 billion cedis on Tuesday.
The following are the
last prices of listed equities in cedis:
ABL 426
AGC 28,500
ALW 4,000
BAT 1,400 +100
CFAO
72
CPC 630
EIC
5,005
FML
2,201
GBL 531
GCB 5,400
GGL 1,223 +5
HFC 1,230
MGL 258
MLC 312
MOGL
19,761
PAF 750
PBC 390
PZ 2,040
SCB 34,000 +1,999
SPPC
390
SSB 6,621
SWL 285
TBL 5,010
UNIL
6,450 +150
CMLT
460
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Ghana
losing $300 million yearly through accidents
Ho (Volta Region) 24
April 2003- Ghana loses 300 million dollars yearly through road accidents, a
summary of road accidents and their effect on the economy by the Agency for
Sustainable Development (ASD), a developmental organisation, has said.
It said the loss
covered vehicle damage, hospital treatment and loss of working capacity apart
from the human cost. The ASD is scheduled to organise a regional training
workshop for drivers in the Volta region from May 5 to 7, this year under the
theme "Development Organisations' response to the indiscipline and
subsequent carnage on our roads: the time of prevention is now".
The statement said
the rate of road accidents in the country "is a big disincentive to our
efforts to generate substantial foreign exchange through the fastest growing
industry, tourism". It noted that in 2001 Ghana was rated the second
highest road traffic accident-prone among six West African countries with 73
deaths per 10,000 accidents.
"In August 2002
it was observed that more than 2,000 people were killed and tens of thousands
more injured in road accidents every year". A World Health Organisation
(WHO) study projects that by 2020 road accidents would be the third highest
cause of death in developing countries including Ghana.
The workshop is part
of efforts by the organisers to complement the work of the National Road Safety
Commission (NRSC) to curb the high rate of accidents in the country, the
statement signed by Fred Agbogbo said. "Let us help reduce the carnage on
our roads before it reduces us," it concluded.
The Volta Regional
Co-ordinating Council has recommended the workshop to District Assemblies,
departments and institutions in the region. In a letter signed by Steve
Selormey, Regional Co-ordinating Director, it urged them to seize the
opportunity by sponsoring some of their drivers to reduce accidents.
GRi…/
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