Accra (Greater Accra) 07 March 2002- Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, Minister of Trade and Industry, on Thursday said information from some "patriotic" Custom, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) officials indicated that about 90 per cent of all initial documents submitted to inspection agencies were either fake or fictitious.
This information, he said has also been collaborated by the inspection agencies. " Importers and or agents collude to suppress invoices as a means of denying the state its legitimate source of revenue," he said.
Dr Apraku, who was inaugurating two committees to ensure maximisation of revenue collection, pledged that government would plug any leakage in the revenue collection system. The committees are the Customs Revenue Reconciliation Committee and the Appeals Committee on Customs Valuation.
Dr Apraku said "there have been cases where some unscrupulous agents after collecting monies from unsuspecting importers later doctored the original documents and managed to pay less and eventually pocket the rest of the money,"
Dr Apraku said reports so far received by his office had shown a difference between the total revenue payable and actual collection by the Customs Excise and Prevention Service (CEPS).
"At this stage, we cannot apportion blame since the differences could be attributed to a number of factors. There is, however, a need to reconcile the difference to unearth malpractice, if any".
Customs officials, who are found to have connived to cheat the state, would be prosecuted in accordance with the law, he said. Dr Apraku said duties and taxes on imports constituted about 70 per cent of government revenue and it was the determination of government to ensure that if there was leakage in revenue collection, they were plugged without delay.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 07 March 2002- The Trades Union Congress (TUC) on Thursday said it welcomed the government's 2002 budget but expressed doubt over the benefits from the proposed privatisation of the water sector to Ghanaians.
"Congress believes that the water sector requires urgent restructuring that must nonetheless be driven by an open and careful national consideration of options available to us," said Mr Kwasi Adu-Amankwah, TUC Secretary-General, at a press conference in Accra to state labour's views on the budget.
"However, we are extremely wary of the current attempts at privatising the water sector and are doubtful of their benefit to the people of Ghana," he said, and urged government to reconsider the current direction of the process.
Mr Adu-Amankwah explained that information available to the TUC indicated that there were no provisions for expansion of water facilities and that the chosen investor would operate with existing facilities.
Added to this was the fact that there was limited disclosure of the process while the effect in cost to the beneficiaries was not yet known. The TUC boss noted that macro-economic targets for the 2001 financial year had been largely achieved.
Overall Gross Domestic Product growth was beyond target by 0.2 per cent at 4.2 per cent. End of year inflation pegged at 21.3 per cent was lower than the targeted 25 per cent while government also achieved its targets with regard to reduction of overall budget deficit as a percentage of GDP.
Mr Adu-Amankwah, however, said the TUC regretted that the new daily national minimum wage was not determined before the budget was presented. "Congress would like to stress that the apparent macro-economic stability of the past year has not translated into significant gains in the pockets of working women and men."
Mr Adu-Amankwah said the TUC was convinced about the importance of the national minimum wage for protecting vulnerable workers and added; "we believe that it is time to begin translating the President's concern for realistic incomes into practice."
Mr Adu-Amankwah touched on the five development priorities mentioned in the budget and said under infrastructure development, the TUC appreciated government's plan to reconstruct three major trunk roads from Accra to Aflao, Accra to Yamoransa and Accra to Kumasi.
"We also welcome the provision to introduce 100 large capacity buses into the public transport system," he said and lauded the intention to restructure the Omnibus Services Authority in a manner that would enable the sector to contribute to mass transportation.
He mentioned efforts to secure additional generation power from the renewable energy sources and urged government not to relent in this direction. Mr Adu-Amankwa also lauded plans for the Ministry of Private Sector Development to collaborate with the ministries of Agriculture and Trade and Industry to support the establishment of at least 10 small and medium scale fruit and tomato processing factories and 10 small-scale brown sugar production plants.
"These would be important initiatives for employment creation and industrial production that adds value to the raw material production and the TUC will be looking out urgently for them," he added. The General-Secretary said out of the five broad sectors into which budgetary allocations were made, social services took the highest with 36.02 per cent.
"Congress will be interested in monitoring the pursuit of vocational training and manpower development goals as set out in the budget, including the establishment of a National Labour Statistics Centre."
On the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, Mr Adu-Amankwah said the budget made a glowing assessment of government's decision to join the HIPC.
However, he said, the proposed gains were contingent upon a set of policies that government had to implement to serve as triggers for the approval of the completion point after which the full benefits would be realised.
"It is necessary for transparency in economic decision making and for nurturing enduring democratic traditions that government is open about what these set of policies are." Mr Adu-Amankwah said the budget also said government would raise more revenue with other measures as a source of resource mobilisation.
"This raises concern, especially, if it is viewed against the background of the declaration in the budget to deploy government machinery of economic management in the course of the year to 'mobilise additional resources from wherever they may be found,'" the TUC Boss said.
"The TUC hopes that those additional sources do not include any new taxes, especially, indirect ones, which can raise the cost of living for working people," he stated
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Tema (Greater Accra) 07 March 2002- Members of the National Fisheries Association of Ghana (NAFAG) have called for a realistic price for tuna, comparable to the international price of the commodity to enable them to sell to local consumers.
They complained that the low price offered on the local market, especially, that by the fish processing companies compelled them to sell the tuna outside the country.
They said while Cote D'Ivoire offers 100 dollars or more for a ton of tuna, local canneries offer 50 dollars for the same quantity, which is far below their production cost, a situation that would collapse the industry.
Nana William Buckman, President of NAFAG, made the call at a meeting with Mr Ishmael Ashietey, Minister of State in charge of Fisheries, after a tour of 10 cold stores in Tema, to assess the condition under which they operated.
They explained that though they have the interest of the nation at heart to promote the economy, they could not afford to transact business where they always run at a loss. They called on the canneries, such as the Ghana Agro Foods Company (GAFCO) and Pioneer Food Cannery (PFC) the major consumers to work out a fair price.
"Why do we have to travel all the way to Cote D'Ivoire, Mauritania and Thailand to sell tuna if we can get good price for it in the country?" NAFAG made a further appeal to the Minister to use his good offices to convince the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) to rescind its decision to increase the harbour dues and complained about the high tariffs charged by the Electricity Company of Ghana.
Nana Buckman entreated the Minister to extend the period given to fishing companies to regularise their documents and further consider suspending the arresting of their vessels at sea.
In June last year, all fishing companies were given six months to regularise their documents before they were issued with new licence, but realising that they were not complying with the directives, the time was extended for another two months and some have still not heeded the call.
The National Fisheries Commission (NFC) has, therefore, authorised the Ghana Navy to arrest vessels whose owners had still not complied with the directives for prosecution.
Mr Ishmael Ashietey said the Ministry was not against foreigners nor Ghanaians operating fishing companies in the country, however, it wanted to ensure that the fishing industry was protected.
In order to save the industry, companies needed to operate within the confines of the law by rectifying any anomalies in their documents, he said. He added that most fishing companies had ignored laid down fishing regulations for quite a long period and it was about time the situation was rectified.
The Minister said preparations were underway to establish stations along the coast to monitor the activities of vessels at sea. He said it was unacceptable for some fishing companies to claim they make a catch of 100,000 tons of tuna in a year.
The Fish Sellers at the fishing harbour led by Madam Lydia Boadu appealed to the government to rescind its decision to increase the duty on imported fish by another five per cent.
They said they found it very difficult to trade under the present 12.5 per cent VAT, saying currently they paid as much as 6.5 million cedis for storing 3,000 cartons of fish for a month in a cold store, so any additional increase would throw them out of jobs.
Even when the Minister explained that the five per cent duty affected fish imported outside ECOWAS countries, while those from within ECOWAS countries was free, they would not budge because they claimed no fish was imported from the ECOWAS region.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 07 March 2002- Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, Minister of Trade and Industry, on Thursday said the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has come to symbolise the twin process of globalisation and liberation of the world economy.
He said WTO provided and set the pace for the establishment of a predictable and transparent environment for the conduct of international commercial relations. Ghana as a member has endeavoured to accede to the agreements of the WTO by establishing "The Appeals Committee on Customs Valuation", which was inaugurated in Accra on Thursday.
The committee has representatives from the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Customs, Excise and Preventive Service, Association of Ghana Industries, Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders the Gateway Services Limited and Ghana Standards Bureau Verities.
A second committee, Committee on Customs Revenue Reconciliation was also inaugurated. Dr Apraku said under the former valuation, which Ghana operated, the Commissioner of Valuation had the final say and the importer had either to take it or leave it. That system made the customs officer the judge, jury and executioner.
He said the WTO agreement on Customs Valuation contained an enforceable requirement that countries acceding to must introduce legislation to provide for a formal right of appeal.
"Customs is enjoined under the agreement to give in writing reasons for or decisions to reject a declared value if requested by an importer," Dr Apraku said. He, however, stressed that the agreement did not mean that any and every frivolous problem associated with valuation be brought to the appeals committee.
Dr Apraku called on CEPS to strengthen and re-invigorate its internal appeals procedure at the various collection points to the level of the headquarters. "If properly handled this will pre-empt the need for importers to get to the appeals committee," he said.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 07 March 2002- Mr Ahumah Ocansey, a legal practitioner, on Thursday urged companies and organisations operating under the Free-Zone enclave to work within international labour laws in order not to run into problems with the law.
He said though their workers might not be unionised and covered by trade union laws it was advisable to abide by the labour regulations. Mr Ocansey gave the advice at the opening of a two-day seminar on laws governing free zones industries. It was organised by Rights Assurance Services, a legal training firm in Accra.
The seminar attracted some 25 free-zone users from all over the country. Some of the topics being treated are: "Application of Ghana's investment laws to free zones", "Rights and liabilities of free-zone users" and "Operative requirement of Ghana's free-zones".
Mr Ocansey said the concept of free trade zones was new in the country and hence there were operational difficulties involving taxes and the understanding of laws. He advised companies to get copies of the Free Zone Legislative Instrument and Act to guide them to operate within their rights and obligations.
Some participants later told the GNA that though free zones users were exempted from direct and indirect taxes they still ended up paying some form of tax. Others also complained that they had to travel all the way to Accra to process and sign their documents since everything had been centralised at the Free Zone offices in Accra.
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