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Dr Humphrey Ayim Darke<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n THE ASSOCIATION of Ghana Industries (AGI) has indicated the government\u2019s recent revision of the 50 per cent benchmark discount value to 30 per cent for general goods and 10 per cent for vehicles does not address the concerns of local manufacturers.<\/p>\n According to the AGI, the downward review will not make local manufacturers competitive.<\/p>\n Dr Humphrey Ayim Darke, AGI President, in a statement issued recently, stated, \u201cWhile we acknowledge efforts by Government to address this distortion, we are very dissatisfied with this review. After bearing the brunt of this policy for over two years, it has been our expectation that the revision will spare us further stress.\u201d<\/p>\n Though consultations are ongoing to address some of the concerns expressed by the AGI, it said was not happy with the recent reduction.<\/p>\n \u201cThis will not achieve the desired impact and we consider this not adequate enough to ensure competitiveness of our manufacturers. Indeed, we are disappointed,\u201d it added. The statement said AGI would like to see a reversal of the benchmark discount policy in a manner that did not constraint local industry, to sustain business operations.<\/p>\n It continued that \u201cOur manufacturing sector constitutes a critical mass of our real economy and therefore it is important to retain the 50% benchmark discount for raw materials to help boost manufacturing and export capacity for the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA),\u201d the statement said. It said since Government had indicated a gradual reversal of the benchmark discount policy, AGI would like to see a road map with timelines for the process.\u201d The AGI continued that government\u2019s policies of such nature should be consistent with initiatives of industrialisation so as to create employment opportunities for the youth, especially as Government sought to create one million jobs and bridge revenue gaps.<\/p>\n \u201cWe expect to see a policy revision that motivates local production for growth of our economy and the development of our local supply chains. AGI believes that the revision of the benchmark discount policy will need to take cognisance of the overarching framework of Ghana\u2019s industrial transformation agenda, competitiveness of local industry and fair-trade practices,\u201d the statement noted.<\/p>\n \n\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dr Humphrey Ayim Darke THE ASSOCIATION of Ghana Industries (AGI) has indicated the government\u2019s recent revision of the 50 per cent benchmark discount value to 30 per cent for general goods and 10 per cent for vehicles does not address the concerns of local manufacturers. According to the AGI, the downward review will not make […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1007395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[1426,202,1368,62],"class_list":["post-1007394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-agi","tag-benchmark","tag-review","tag-unhappy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1007394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1007394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1007394\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1007394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1007394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1007394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}