The Executive Secretary of the Importers and Exporters Association of Ghana is predicting that, prices of goods will skyrocket ahead of the Christmas festivities.
Sampson Asaki Awingobite urged Ghanaians to prepare for challenging times, adding that the 2024 budget will not bring relief.
In his view, the 2024 Budget Statement and Economic Policy presented by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta in Parliament did not state measures government to taking to stabilise the local currency.
“We are talking about how Ghanaians are walloping and he wants us to clap for him?. What I will tell Ghanaians is that prices of goods won’t reduce if the dollar is going to remain the same. There is nothing like Christmas for all of us” he said in an interview on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme Thursday.
He could not fathom why the government’s focus on introducing electric vehicles and waiving import taxes on them while the prices of essential goods remain high.
Rather, Mr. Awingobite was expecting the removal of the COVID levy which he said would have been a desired outcome.
He criticised the government for what he described as a bad handling of the economy, calling the recently presented budget as a “nkukuo budget” rather than the promised “nkunim budget.”
The Finance Minister, in his budget presentation, outlined various tax measures aimed at providing relief to citizens as the economy transitions from recovery to stability.
These measures included the reduction of certain taxes and the waiver of import duties on semi-knocked down electric vehicles for registered EV assembly companies, as well as the waiver of import duties on electric vehicles for public and private transportation for eight years.
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