The Ghana Union of Traders’ Associations (GUTA) has called for the urgent cessation of the 5% excise tax on plastic manufacturers.
According to the association, imposing such a tax during the current economic hardships is seen as “insensitive” by the government.
“GUTA registers its indignation at the imposition of the 5% Excise Tax on plastic manufacturing companies in the country, and calls for immediate withdrawal of the tax to save the companies from collapse,” stated Alpha Shaban, the General Secretary, in a press release.
The association emphasized that the business community and ordinary Ghanaians are already struggling with the instability of the local currency, rising utility tariffs, and numerous other taxes.
GUTA questioned the logic behind the new tax, particularly when the government is promoting industrialization and import substitution.
“What economic sense does it make at this time, when the government is said to be driving its industrialization agenda, calling for the need for import substitution, and at the same time imposing such an obnoxious tax on local manufacturing companies to collapse businesses, which are already suffocating as a result of unbearable taxes in the system?” the association queried.
The statement concluded with a strong appeal to the government to halt the implementation of the 5% excise tax to alleviate the financial burden on businesses.
“The business community can no longer accept any additional layer of cost to doing business in the country, so we appeal to the government to, as a matter of urgency, stop the implementation of the 5% Excise Tax to alleviate hardship in the country,” it read.
