Member of Parliament Buem for, Kofi Adams, says K.T. Hammond is wrong for introducing a bill to regulate the prices of cement products.
While acknowledging the need to address skyrocketing cement prices, the MP argued that introducing a bill is not the solution.
Speaking on JoyNews‘ Newsfile, he stated that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is out of ideas to address problems facing the country.
“That is the reason we say that their ideas are finished, in terms of solving the problems that confront this country. We must pack them off and bring persons with fresh ideas who can deal with this situation.”
“It’s so funny that this government feels things they have control over, which can help manage the price, let’s do nothing about it, because that is what will give us the money to live like Arabian kings and let’s continue to do things that will either stifle business or that will make the people suffer,” he said on June 29.
Mr Adams pointed out the impact of duties and port charges, particularly those tied to the dollar, on imported clinker, a critical component in cement manufacturing.
“The charges the port also takes from the company that imports this clinker is dollarised. So every day that the government fails to manage the cedi well, it depreciates, they suffer because you are selling the cement in cedis and you will have to change and pay either dollar index cedi rate or pay dollar.”
The MP also noted that, a single terminal handles these imports, leading to unnecessary demurrage costs.
“You pay demurrage based on the number of days that you spend there beyond the allowable time,” he said.
However, Mr Adams proposed a different approach instead of introducing an LI to regulate the prices.
“The taxes on the material that is imported for cement production must be looked into. Increase the buffing spaces for the clearing of the clinker and other related materials like limestone. When you do so, demurrage will reduce.”
“If government believes that you have housing deficit, and cement is a key component of construction if government believes that infrastructure and cement is a key component, it would begin to look at things that you can reduce so you make the price of cement a bit lower for persons to afford,” he said.