The Chairman of the Spare Part Dealers Association at Abossey-Okai in Accra, Samuel Siaw Ampadu, says government officials “who wear suits and coats think because we are ‘dirty’ we do not know our rights”.
He says due to this they are careful when dealing with “the technocrats” and that does not mean spare parts dealers, because their work involves dirt, do not know what to do in terms of their business.
Mr. Siaw Ampadu made the observations on Onua FM’s Ghana Dadwene on Thursday.
He was speaking on the implementation of the scrapped duty on imported spare parts which the government announced in the 2017 budget.
The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori Atta, during the presentation of the 2017 budget announced the removal of what government considers “nuisance taxes” to promote growth in the private sector.
The list of taxes abolished were “the 1% Special Import Levy, Kayayei market tolls, 17.5% VAT/NHIL on financial services, 17.5% VAT/NHIL on selected imported medicines that are not produced locally, 17.5% VAT/NHIL on domestic airline tickets and duty on imported spare parts”. The rest were “5% VAT/NHIL on Real estate sales, exercise duty on petroleum, list of reviewed taxes, corporate income tax to be progressively reduced from 25% to 20% in 2018, replace 17.5% of VAT/NHIL with 3% flat rate for traders, tax credits and other incentives for businesses that hire young graduates from tertiary institutions, tax incentives for young entrepreneurs and reduce special petroleum tax rate from 17.5% to 15%”.
Almost all the waved taxes have started working but over three months into this regime, the duty on imported spare parts has not been implemented.
Mr. Siaw Ampadu is urging its members and customers to be patient as they are in talks with the government to enforce the tax exemption on import duties for spare parts.
He explained that after the announcement by the government, there are procedures the government must go through both locally and internationally and that is what government is doing now.
He explained that they [spare parts dealers] have met with the Trade Ministry and they have submitted their proposals on what constitutes and does not constitute spare parts.
Asked how long the deliberation will take, Mr. Siaw Ampadu said some people think it will take longer years due to the procedure and processes but was optimistic that the moment Parliament resumes in the month of May, their proposal will be put before the House for approval.
By Kweku Antwi-Otoo|Onua 95.1FM|3news.com|Ghana