The Cement Manufacturers Association has said Trade Minister, Kobina Tahir (K.T) Hammond rushed in presenting his proposed legislative instrument(L.I) before parliament.
In an interview on Adom FM’s morning show, Dwaso Nsem Monday, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Dawson Amoah said there were real issues the Minister should have addressed instead of making a hasty decision.
According to him, all stakeholders would have understood issues better if there had been an extensive engagement which the Minister failed to do.
“One-third of the production cost is coming from the government. Talk of cedi depreciation, electricity, GPHA tariffs which are dollarised, taxes, import duties, fumigation levies and several killer levies.
“We have an MoU with the Ministry through which we could have seen how best to stabilise the cement prices but the Minister just rushed to parliament with the L.I without addressing underlying issues,” he stated.
Dr Dawson added that, cement manufacturers do not take delight in increasing their prices and are always reluctant to do so.
“We have a very good relationship with the Trade Ministry because the concern of cement product has been a priority of all his predecessors.
“Cement prices escalation has always not been an issue because it was favourable so if now it has become an issue, why don’t we find the antidote? I would suggest that there should be a dialogue to see how we can stabilize cement prices,” he said.
Cement manufacturers in the past days have been up in arms with KT Hammond over the proposed L.I. to push for transparency with their production costs and other needed information to help create a price ceiling beneficial to them and the consumers.
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