The four measures government can adopt to reduce financial constraints on businesses

Ghana facing economic distress

Government adopting homegrown solutions to sustain economy – Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta

Government must restore benchmark value, extend tax amnesty – AGI

The Association of Ghana Industries has outlined four measures government could adopt to reduce financial constraints on businesses in the country.

Since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses have had to fold up, lay off workers, and even place their operations on hold due to earlier restrictions on movement and the pandemic’s associated impact.

Two years since the pandemic erupted, Ghana is still experiencing an economic downturn due to revenue generation constraints, fuel price hikes, global external developments, inflation pressures, and tight fiscal conditions among others.

These conditions have resulted in the government opting to adopt homegrown solutions and expenditure cuts to sustain the economy.

Speaking in an interview on JoyNews’ PM Express Business Edition, the AGI president, Dr. Humphrey Ayim-Darke, suggested the four measures to address the current situation.

“One, restore the benchmark value at the ports as we [AGI] requested... a number of issues have led to this.”

“Two, the raw material bit that industry is using let us discount it zero for industries to import and increase productivity. Granted that this inflation is being driven by productivity we’ll not find ourselves in this space,” he said.

“Thirdly, I said peg the exchange rate at the port, instead of every two weeks possibly start with a quarter and let’s see the effect.

“Fourthly, the tax amnesty that government granted industry and the economy kindly extend it, you know it was extended to June, we pray that within the difficulty we are battling with our taxes, Mr. Minister please extend the tax amnesty possibly for a year so that we can get a breather to readjust and plough in some of the funds back into the system,” the AGI president outlined.

While the AGI believes these measures can result in an economic turnaround, he admitted to the harsh conditions many businesses in the country were facing at the present and urged the government to take drastic measures to address them.

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