The Executive Secretary of the Importers and Exporters Association of Ghana (IEAG), Sampson Asaki Awingobit has said the pleas by rice millers, commercial rice farmers and the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana for the benchmark values to be reversed are unwarranted.
Mr Awingobit explained that the arguments by the aforementioned organisations that should the reversal of the benchmark values continue to be on hold, some 100,000 rice farmers would lose their jobs is misplaced.
Mr. Awingobit, speaking on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East, explained that there is no relationship between the importation of rice and the loss of jobs within the local space. His arguments were premised on the fact that importers pay a certain percentage of levies to the government. Those levies are supposed to be put in the EXIM Bank and supposed to be expended to enhance agriculture in the country. The Executive Secretary of the IEAG monies accrued from the fund is supposed to go into subsidies of farm inputs, expansion of farmers, provision of extension and irrigation services along with many other interventions directed towards improving the economic situation of farmers.
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He continued to say that once importers continue to do their part, by paying the levies, the questions should be directed to the government so that it makes public, what monies in the fund have been used for.
The Awingobit continued to say that rice importers have always borne the brunt of huge increases in taxes but have still managed to import rice to complement the efforts of Ghanaian rice farmers.
A1radioonline.com|101.1 MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
