Reduce Electricity Tariff – AGI Tells Government

The President of the Association of Ghana Industries, Mr. James Asare-Adjei, has called on government to significantly reduce the cost of power supply to enable local industries survive.

According to him, local industries will be highly competitive if cheaper sources of power like hydro power are dedicated to them at a lower cost.

Speaking at the Association’s 57th Annual General Meeting held in Accra on Wednesday, Mr. Asare-Adjei further called on Government to include their call in the 2018 budget that will be read on Wednesday November 15, 2017 by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta.

“If we are competing with companies in countries that pay between three and five cents per kilowatt hour, it is difficult for local industries to survive. We believe that the tariff structure should not disadvantage the industry”, he stressed.

1-Distric-1-Factory Project

Touching on the One District One Factory initiative by government, Mr. Asare-Adjei called for a faster approach to ensure a full implementation of the initiative.

According to him, there should be a clear definition in terms of whose responsibility it is to spearhead the implementation.

“I am very sure that the slowness in the implementation may be as a result of the multifaceted or sectorial approach to its implementation, and we are calling for a faster approach to this initiative”, he said

The Minister for Trade and Industry, Allan Kyeremanten, on his part stated that government is gradually shaping the focus of economic policy from taxation to incentivizing production.

“In all serious economies, the structure of taxation is such that you allow people to succeed and make money before you can ask them to contribute. You don’t kill the companies and still expect them to pay taxes to support the economy. That is why in the 2017 budget there were taxes that where either abolished or reduced”, he said.

According to him, government has embarked on an industrial transformation agenda to make Ghana a manufacturing hub.

Source: Emmanuel Yeboah Britwum/ thePublisher