Closure of shops in Accra : Govt, GUTA reach agreement - Okyere Baafi
The government and members of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) have reached an agreement on some of their demands, the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Michael Okyere Baafi, has disclosed.
“As we speak, we have given some concessions. The government has agreed to peg the dollar to the interbank rates and lock it down for three months to make the traders very comfortable in their business,” he said.
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The minister added that the government had also decided to suspend the ongoing invigilation by officials of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) at various shops to ease the tension in the system.
He has, therefore, entreated members of GUTA to reopen their shops while negotiations continued to resolve the other concerns of the association.
The deputy minister announced this at an orientation and signing ceremony for beneficiaries of a second phase of the Ghana Economic Transformation Project (GETP) grant in Accra yesterday.
According to him, “a lot of people were not paying taxes and so the GRA decided to undertake the exercise to check the system.”
“But now the traders are pushing for its suspension and so we have agreed to suspend the GRA invigilation and we believe that GUTA will go back to open their shops for us to continue with the negotiations,” he said.
“Another problem we have with GUTA from Wednesday is because we do not have enough forex in the system and so the traders are calling on the government to arrest the exchange rate.
“I do not know which police to report this issue to in order to effect the arrest, but we are doing our best to ensure that we sanitise the system,” Mr Baafi added.
Closure
Members of GUTA on Wednesday closed their shops in protest against what they described as unfavourable government policies and economic hardships directed at their businesses, with a plan to reopen the shops on Monday, October 24, 2022.
The closure is to also enable the traders to register their displeasure against the rising inflation, depreciation of the cedi and high lending rates due to an increase in the policy rate by the Bank of Ghana (BoG).
The agitation, according to the association, was a first sign of caution to the government to act swiftly to reverse the policies or continue to face the wrath of members.
However, the deputy minister said that the government was doing a lot to improve lives and for that reason people must appreciate their efforts.
Mr Baafi wondered why GUTA would just close down their shops when they had benefited much from programmes implemented by the government.
Response
The first Vice-President of GUTA, Clement Boateng, in an interview with the Daily Graphic on the development, said traders were awaiting official communication on the two concessions by the government.
He said until that was done, his outfit would not reopen the shops till the scheduled reopening day next Monday.
According to him, the members had taken notice of the fact that GRA had withdrawn its officials from the shops but said they needed an official communication to that effect.
“We have evidence to attest to the fact that the GRA officials are no more in the show, but the pegging of the exchange rate at the ports we believe is just a mere comment,” he said.