The Trade Ministry has hinted of plans to stop the influx of pirated goods on the market by affixing tax stamps on local textiles.
This, the ministry says will help differentiate the local textiles from the smuggled ones, and eventually allow them get rid of the pirated cloth on the market.
For several months, the textile workers have intensified their pressure for the government to help them in the fight against the influx of pirated textiles on the market.
The fake textiles are imported from various countries to Ghana; with the majority coming in from China.
A development the textile workers believe is because of its relatively lower price compared to the original textiles produced in Ghana.
The situation, which keeps worsening by the year, forced the Trade Ministry to set up a task force to deal with the issue.
Among other things, the task force which was inaugurated in October 2017 was to ensure all persons caught smuggling pirated goods onto the local markets are arrested.
This development, however, was not satisfactory to the Textile and Garment Workers Union .
After refusing to collaborate with the ministry for what they describe as its failure to settle some outstanding issues, the union embarked on a demonstration to express their displeasure about the whole situation.
But reacting to this development, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Carlos Ahenkorah in an interview with Citi Business News, outlined various ways his ministry is going to tackle the issue of pirated goods on the market.
According to him, one major way will be to affix tax stamps on all local textiles to differentiate them from the imported ones.
“Some of the ways and means that I am talking about is a discussion we have had with the GRA to roll on the textile industry with the tax stamp program. Today, every beverage that you see coming into the country has a Ghanaian tax stamp on so we want to introduce this into the textile industry where every cloth produced in Ghana will have a tax stamp” he said.
He added that “we are also trying to develop the intellectual property law which will give us that right to even prosecute people who counterfeit or pirate people’s designs”.
Meanwhile, the Textiles and Garment Workers’ Union wants the government to strictly monitor the new strategy if it is to achieve the intended results.
The General Secretary of the union, Abraham Koomson speaking to Citi Business News said “The tax stamp is good. It will help people to even pay their duties, taxes and others for the state, but how do we ensure that people even comply? What we are saying is that it comes down to monitoring”.
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By: Jessica Ayorkor Aryee/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana.