Freight Forwarders demand urgent review of 3 new tax laws

The Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders is asking the government to review the three new revenue bills passed by Parliament.

This follows the decline in traffic at various ports in the country. The situation is reported to have commenced in June 2022 through to the end of the first quarter of 2023.

The immediate past President of the Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders, Kwabena Ofosu Appiah in an interview, said the situation would persist if the government does not scrap taxes which are crippling the sector.

“These new taxes must be reviewed though they have been passed, the government will have to look at the impact they are going to have on businesses and traders.”

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“Again, the regulatory agencies have also been making things very difficult for us. They pitch camp at the ports and throw in every manner of frustrations at importers.”

Parliament on March 31 passed the three controversial tax bills before going on recess.

The three taxes include the Excise Duty Amendment Bill 2022, the Growth and Sustainability Levy Bill, 2022, the Ghana Revenue Authority Bill 2022, and the Income Tax Amendment Bill 2022.

Many in the business community including the Ghana Union of Traders’ Associations (GUTA) and the Importers and Exporters Association of Ghana have kicked against the taxes warning that they affect bills and admonished the government to improve upon its fiscal decisions which they say are to blame for the low volume of imports through Ghana’s ports.