Foul language and threats can scare investors-Abodakpi
Tax exemptions on agricultural inputs adequate - Selormey
Foul language and threats can scare
investors-Abodakpi
Accra (Greater Accra) 09 June 2000
Mr. Dan Abodakpi, Minister of Trade and Industry on Thursday said foul language and threats from politicians could seriously undermine efforts at attracting investment to the country.
He said investment capital is scarce so all should help create the right atmosphere to attract it.
The Minister was answering questions posed by Nana Akufo Addo, NPP-Abuakwa, who had asked if condemnations and the use of intemperate language could be a constraint to the development of local entrepreneurial culture.
When asked if those in authority have a special and higher responsibility to see to it that the language they use does not have a negative effect on investment, he said, "it takes two to tango", so everybody should see this as a shared responsibility to maintain the peace.
He said at no time in Ghana's history has it attracted investment and entrepreneurial skill than during the NDC era.
On the substantive question asked by Mr. Yaw Barimah, NPP- Koforidua, on the ministry's plans to develop the industrial potentials of the municipality, he said his ministry was working with the Ghana Export Promotion Council and the Ghana Investment Promotion Board to make the potentials available for local and foreign investors.
He said the handicraft and bead-making areas have a lot of potentials and expressed the hope that they would be fully exploited in due course.
Mr. Victor Gbeho, Minister of Foreign Affairs answering questions on how much Ghana earned from her properties abroad, said the country collected 74,449 dollars on her estate property in Nairobi, Kenya, between March 5,1995 and September 16, 1998.
He said the county’s property in London, U.K. also fetched 34,619.86 pound sterling.
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Tax exemptions on agricultural inputs
adequate - Selormey
Accra (Greater Accra) 09 June 2000
Mr. Victor Selormey, a Deputy Minister of Finance on Thursday told Parliament that the government has taken a number of interventions to ensure adequate tax exemptions for importers of agricultural inputs.
He said as part of this effort, the Value Added Tax (VAT) Service and the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) have been liaising with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) to ensure that agricultural inputs, which qualify for such exemptions, are granted.
Mr. Selormey, who was answering an "Urgent Question" in the House, said the VAT Act 1998 (Act 546), exempts all forms of fertilisers, pesticides, fungicides veterinary drugs and vaccines, as well as feed and feed ingredients from VAT.
Also exempted from VAT are machinery, apparatus, appliances and parts designed for use in agriculture, veterinary, fishing and horticulture.
Mr. Selormey told the House that since VAT was implemented in 1998, MOFA has on several occasions interceded on behalf of importers and that exemptions have always been granted.
The question, which stood in the name of Alhaji Issaku Saliah, NDC - Wa East, wanted to know from the Minister of Finance why the VAT Secretariat and CEPS continue to charge taxes on agricultural inputs imported into the country despite a decision to the contrary.
Mr. Selormey said the 2000 budget proposed that all veterinary drugs, as well as ingredients for the manufacture of poultry feed should be exempted from import duty.
He explained that the implication of this is that animal feed, veterinary drugs, which attracted 10 per cent import duty and yellow maize, attracting 20 per cent import duty, were to be zero-rated under Act 578 of 2000.
The Deputy Minister said it appears, however, that a part of Act 578 has been amended because animal feed was zero-rated while veterinary medicine and yellow maize still stood at 10 per cent and 20 per cent respectively in the Act.
"There may have been some omissions and items, which might constitute ingredients for poultry feed have not been adequately addressed.
"The Customs, Excise and Preventive Service is in consultation with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to identify these ingredients and include them in the schedule of exemptions", he said.
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