Institute price control measures - APC to govt
The All People's Congress (APC) has called on the government to institute a price guarantee and control system to control prices of goods and services in the country.
The political party also urged the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to collaborate with all relevant institutions to make sure that all commodities in the markets were properly coded and regulated.
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The Founder and Leader of APC, Hassan Ayariga, made the call at a press conference held last Tuesday in Accra .
Mr Ayariga stated that the appreciation of the cedi was meaningless unless it was linked with the total reduction of prices of goods and services and petroleum products.
“Inflation is now 50 per cent. Inflation will continue to accelerate if our business leaders continue to enjoy the undue advantage. I am calling on our business leaders and market traders to reduce their prices of goods and services immediately to mitigate the situation. Many are worried about the stabilisation of the Ghanaian cedi against the major currencies, but it is only when we all do the right thing that the cedi will be stable,” he said.
Task force
Mr Ayariga appealed to the government to institute a national task force to go round and make sure that traders, businesses, malls, companies, cement and iron rod dealers, shop owners and others reduce their prices of goods and services.
“Government should also roll out policies and regulations of pricing of goods and services in the country,” he added.
He further opined that the government should pass a legislation or direct all the banks in the country to credit clients who intended to buy foreign currencies for business purposes by crediting their accounts with such currencies rather than giving out physical cash to them.
“By this, our traders will not have cash (foreign currencies) transactions any more,” he said.
“We should learn to love and value our own Ghana Cedi and make it great and strong,” he said.
The leader of the APC called on the trading communities to reduce the prices of goods and services in accordance with the current appreciation of the cedi against the major trading currencies.
Undue advantage
He said the APC party would not allow people to take undue advantage of the situation and increase the suffering of our very own people, stressing that it was the collective duty of all to help resolve our crisis and as well build Ghana together.
“No government can build a better Ghana without the support, understanding, sacrifices and love of the Ghanaian people,” he said.
According to him, love for one’s nation also meant sacrificing for the current and future generations, emphasising that the national interest must be above individual parochial interests.
“We must change our attitude and stop all this partisan behaviour and build our homeland together,” he said.
“Admittedly, our governments have failed us, but must our citizens and business leaders also fail this generation? We need one another to build a resilient and robust economy. We are the government and we must rise above pertinence and do the right thing for our motherland to grow and develop,” Mr Ayariga said.