Government urged to amend Investment Code

The Chairman of the Abossey Okine Spare Parts Dealers Association, Mr Joseph Paddy, has appealed to the new National Democratic Congress (NDC) Administration to speed up the process of amending the investment code to reflect the modern trend of doing business.
“This would help protect the indigenous Ghanaian business entrepreneurs who provide the bulk of employment for the youth and a greater source of income for the economy when it comes to the retail sector,” he said in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday.
The Chairman expressed worry over the cost of doing business in the country, which according to him was too expensive due to the high import duties, delays in clearing procedures, as well as the monopolistic nature of the service providers (agents) at the ports of entry, who charge exorbitant fees for import duties and clearing procedures.
He noted that these challenges accounted for the high cost of the spare parts in the country, and therefore, called on government to reduce these taxes to improve business.
“We are appealing to the government to empower the Ghana Shippers Council to fight the course of traders with regards to shipping lines,” he said.
Mr Paddy noted that the spare parts business in the country, as well as other small-scale businesses, were currently under threat because of these unfavourable conditions and stressed that “by speeding up the process of amending the investment code, which was enacted over a decade a go, these problems would be addressed”.
Mr Paddy explained that members of the association have not increased the prices of their goods because of the change in government.
He said as traders, what made them increase the prices of their goods was the significant increase in the dollar rate as against the cedi and high import duties
He said it was unfortunate that some people perceived spare parts dealers at Abossey Okai as being sympathetic to a particular party and pointed out that “we are commercial business operators who contribute our quota to national development and we do not indulge in party politics with our business”.
On the prices of some of their goods, he said the cost of an oil filter was between GH¢2 and GH¢3, brake pad was also between GH¢20 and GH¢30, depending on the type of car, while a water pump, whose price varied from car to car, was GH¢25, particularly for saloon cars such as Toyota and others.
“The change in government does not affect our business here; the only thing which does is the investment policy the government decides to put in place,” he stated, and called on the new government to put in place good policies to enhance their businesses.
A Honda and Benz spare parts dealer who gave his name only as Opare said, “We have not increased our prices. How can we increase our prices when the goods are not being bought? We will only run at a loss.”
Another Honda parts dealer, Nii Nartey, recalled that the prices of goods shot up slightly last year but since then they had not increased the price of any item and were rather decreasing it to get more buyers.
“Even when petrol prices are increased our prices are still the same and we hardly increase the prices of our goods here. We are yet to see what the Mills administration has for us,” he said.
Gloria, a car battery dealer, appealed to the government to reduce taxes for them to also make some profit.
Another trader who gave her name as Serwah Akoto also noted that the prices of goods had decreased significantly because in January people did not patronise their goods, adding that the market was slow during that period.
The spare parts dealers expressed concern about development in Abossey Okine in terms of facilities such as electricity, public places of convenience and congestion due to the deplorable nature of the roads, stressing that these were also major challenges confronting them.
They therefore called on the new administration to address these concerns in order to help facilitate their business and afford them the opportunity to contribute their quota to the country’s economy.