Check illegalities in oil palm industry - Association
The Oil Palm Development Association of Ghana (OPDAG) has appealed to the government to put measures in place to address illegalities in the oil palm industry.
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According to the association, importers continued to bring onto the Ghanaian market oil products at cheaper rates far below the international cost and prices set for the industry locally.
That, it said, was having a negative impact on the operations of the locals.
The President of OPDAG, Mr Samuel Avaala, disclosed this to the media on behalf of the local manufacturers after a crunch meeting on the dire situation in Accra.
Present at the meeting were representatives from Wilmar Africa Ltd, Avons Industries, Benso Oil Palm Plantation and Oro Oil Ghana Limited.
Illegalities
“Their illegalities are mainly attributed to duty/tax evasion and tax avoidance in the form of under-declaration, under-invoicing, misdeclaration, smuggling, removal in bond, removal in transit and corruption at entry ports,” Mr Avaala said.
He said the government needed to crack down on the activities of the importers in order to create a level playing field for players in the industry.
“Failure to do this will stifle local production, with a negative impact on the refining industry and a ripple effect down the value chain,” he said.
Mr Avaala also bemoaned the fact that imported finished packaged oil had insignificant added values “in terms of industrial competence, employment, direct investment, the use of local raw materials and a negative development costing the state a whopping amount of money due to tax evasion”.
Regulation
Mr Avaala added that the industry was advocating the setting up of a Palm Oil Regulatory Authority to regulate the importation and exportation of palm oil, observing that the industry in Ghana risked total collapse if strict prohibitive measures were not taken by policy makers.
The Chief Commercial Officer of Ghana Oil Palm Development Company Limited (GOPDC), Mr Gangadhar Shetty, who was the lead facilitator of the meeting, insisted that the country’s palm oil industry had the capacity to meet local demand, explaining that the existing oil palm refineries in the country had a combined capacity of approximately 626,400 tonnes per annum against a local demand of 228,000 per annum.
“This is a clear indication that the local manufacturing companies have the ability to cater not only for the local domestic demand but also for the ECOWAS markets through exports of international quality packed oils, thus bringing in the much-needed foreign exchange earnings,” he stated.
As a result, he noted, there was no basis for the continued importation of finished packed oils into the country.
