Traders, food and beverage sellers, import and exporters, freight forwarders and other business groups have ordered members across the country to close down their shops, boycott payment of taxes, and abandon the ports until they are closed down.
They have also asked members to get ready to pour onto the streets to demonstrate against government.
This comes after a three-day strike failed to get officialdom to address their concerns.
They are protesting high taxes and general cost of doing business in Ghana.
“The battle has not ended, the strike is still on and it could take diverse ways. Some of them will take the form of boycott, demonstrations, closure of ports and nationwide shutdown again.
“Members of the public or the business community should continue paying the 3% flat rate scheme which was designed and fashioned out with the informal sector economy.
“Members also should boycott the excise tax stamp. All of us here are consumers and, in effect, there is no distinction between the importer, the trader, and the consumer.
“Members of the business communities are also encouraged to report any form of harassment and intimidation to the hierarchy of the joint private sector business consultative forum. So these are options and these options could be applied at any point in time,” spokesperson for the group and president of Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) George Ofori told Class News’ Emefa Apawu after an unsuccessful meeting with government officials on Thursday March 3.
Asked if asking members to boycott the excise tax stamp was not an act of illegality, Mr Ofori responded: “What we are trying to say is that there was a standard VAT of 17%. Members of the informal sector were asked to pay the special 3% flat rate tax. All of a sudden some of them were migrated to the 17.5% without consultation, so, paying the 3% is still payment of tax. So, we are not avoiding the tax but we are paying the 3% as usual.
Meanwhile, the executive secretary of the Food and Beverages Association, Sam Aggrey, has cautioned politicians who wish to make political gains out of their action to step aside because they are to be blamed for their woes.
“Let me sound this caution: if any politician will want to take advantage of what is going on, then they have shot themselves in the foot. We are not going to accept it. If they take advantage of what is happening then I am sorry because the laws that we are facing today it is the politician and not the trader who has imposed this on us. We are suffering.
“If you take the CET it’s the politicians in ECOWAS that sat down and brought all these things. We are not saying do not increase or charge your tariffs and the taxes but it shouldn’t be abnormal to run down businesses. What we have now is running down businesses.”
