GRi Business, Economics & Finance 12 –
02 - 2003
The council said it fully
appreciates and highly commends government for the bold and courageous steps it
adopted by increasing petroleum products to remedy the country's ailing economy
but deplored the rate at which the prices were increased.
Nii Abeo-Kyerekuandah
IV, the Executive Secretary made the appeal at the Council's General Meeting in
He said canoe fishing produces
about 70 percent of the national total fish landings and any attempt by
government to turn down their appeal would bring untold hardship to fishermen.
He said the current increase
from 7,500 cedis to 16,000 cedis was so high for members. Nii
Abeo-Kyerekuandah said previously, it cost a member
who decides to do hook and line fishing 1.3 million cedis but with the increase
it now costs 3.5 million cedis.
He said there was the need to
streamline the administration of the premix fuel to ensure its judicious use to
bring sanity into the industry. He said Pair Trawling and politics were posing
additional threats to the industry.
Flight Lieutenant Miltiades Tackey (RTD), President
of the National Fishers Association of Ghana (NAFAG), called for continued
collaboration between members. He advised members to stop unnecessary rivalry
and work as a team to develop the industry and called on members to send their
children to school.
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Tema (Greater Accra)
As part of the measures, he
announced that from March, tanker drivers and their mates would start wearing
common uniform for easy identification to check infiltration. He said tanker
operators have welcomed the new measures because they were also worried about
people mingling with them to commit crimes that go to tarnish their image.
Forson said the bushy areas around the
pipelines at the premises of the refinery that has served as a hide out for
criminal activities has been cleared.
He said the measures have become
necessary in view of the fact that the company's security and the security
agencies cannot be at every corner of the refinery to keep watch and expressed
the hope that it would bring sanity into the system adding that they were
liaising with the security agencies to find a lasting solution to the problem.
Last week seven people were
arrested at TOR for siphoning fuel from tankers that have already been served
into containers and they were put before a Tema court where they were remanded
into custody to re-appear on Wednesday, 12 February. They all pleaded not guilty.
They were Kwasi
Donkor, unemployed, Kwasi Ahroe, apprentice electrician, Thomas Appiah, electrician,
Kofi Asamoah and Kwame Adjei both drivers and Daniel Coleman and Morgan Seidu both driver's mate.
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Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 12
February 2003- The Association of Processed Drinking Water Producers has
cautioned moves by the VAT Secretariat to charge VAT on sachet water, saying,
it could force many Ghanaians to resort to drinking impure and unsafe water.
Such a development, the
association held, could have far reaching consequences on the government's
efforts at promoting quality health. These were contained in a press statement
issued in
The Association said if
pharmaceuticals have been exempted from the VAT, it wondered why the same
dispensation could not be extended to water, which is equally important for
health.
It pointed out that safe water
was never a luxury but an essential necessity of life and nothing should be
done to deny the people access to good quality water. "It is only now that
people are coming to accept sachet water which is produced under hygienic
conditions to meet standards set by the Ghana Standards Board, and we should
not kill off this interest".
The association noted that apart
from payment of income tax to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by its members,
they also pay VAT on raw materials they use for their production as well as
electricity consumption, adding, "this should be
enough".
It maintained that in as much as
it appreciated the fact that taxation was vital for national development, it
was of a firm opinion that "it should have a more human face".
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