A Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry, Carlos Kingsley Ahenkorah, has told people who deal in textiles in Takoradi that the policy to affix tax stamps on local textiles will stop the influx of pirated goods on the Ghanaian market.
Textile workers in the country have complained about the influx of pirated products on the local market and mounted pressure on the government to help tackle the menace.
The pirated textiles are usually imported from various countries to Ghana, with the majority coming from China at relatively lower prices compared to the local textiles.
According to the Deputy Trade Minister, it's heartbreaking for people to come out with their intellectual property for others to just pirate those designs.
He added that owing to the cost of production in Ghana and the logistics required to produce garments, it was not feasible for Ghanaian companies to compete favourably with foreign ones.
Speaking to journalists at a sensitization programme for market women and textiles sellers in Takoradi, the deputy minister remarked “we are not against importation but when you do import the textiles, you have to pay the taxes on them so government can get revenue to develop the country and at the same time help build businesses. But don't import pirated textiles”.
“The total requirement of textiles per annum in Ghana is about 120 million yarns but currently the total production capacity is 40 million yarns.”
“So we have a deficit of 80 million so we can't stop importation, however if it is possible for anyone to bring in investors to set up their factories here, we will be more than happy,” he stressed.
He indicated that in the past the textiles sector alone employed about 30,000 workers but currently it employs about 2,000 workers.
“This unfortunate incident has occurred due to the influx of pirated designs and gross infringements on trademarks of our local textiles sector,” he added.
He continued “we are looking to address a number of issues, encourage local manufacturing of textiles, inspire people to buy made in Ghana and stop the piracy of designs.”
“So we have had discussions with the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to roll out tax stamp policy in the textiles industry.”
He added that affixing tax stamps on textiles would check piracy and counterfeiting, as well enhance duty payments.
Mr. Ahenkorah disclosed that two tax stamps would be affixed on textiles- one for Ghana-made textiles and the other for imported ones, with a code that gives real-time feedback to Customs officials concerning tax compliance and genuineness or otherwise of the product to the buyer.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi
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