Chief Executive Officer of AGI, Seth Twum Akwaboah, the blanket application of the reduction of benchmark values on all product lines in the country is crippling local industries who are struggling to compete with the over-incentivised imported goods.
The AGI boss, who was speaking on Eye on Port, explained that the reduced benchmark values of imports combined with major incentives provided for exporting industries overseas has made it very easy for foreign goods to be priced cheaper than the local ones.
“Some of the exports that come into the country enjoy export rebates from their respective countries. Some countries make it a deliberate policy to aggressively export, so when they do, they take out duties and give them concessions, so the goods are shipped into our market at very low prices.
So, if you apply further reductions by half, then you are collapsing your local industries,” Mr. Akwaboah explained.
Mr. Twum-Akwaboah said as a matter of urgency, some preferential treatment is supposed to be given to local manufacturing industries to support their growth, and one of the effective ways is by eliminating the 50percent discounts on benchmark values of products invested in by local industries.
He stated that such policy directions are commonplace in the development of industries abroad and these initiatives are worth emulating by the government.