Suspend 5% tax on plastics — Plastic manufacturers

The Ghana Plastic Manufacturers Association (GPMA) has called on the government to immediately suspend indefinitely, the five per cent tax on ex-factory price of all locally manufactured plastic products.

That, it said was because, the five per cent excise tax would adversely affect the general manufacturing business community and compound the living conditions of the everyday consumer.

Already, it said some manufacturing companies had suspended production and put workers on whole leave due to the high foreign exchange rates, high benchmark values and very high operating overhead coasts.

The President of the GPMA, Ebbo Botwey said this at a press conference in Accra last Tuesday. The GPMA include the National Association of Sachet & Packaged Water Producers, the Ghana Union of Traders Association, Association of Ghana Industries and Food & Beverage Association of Ghana.

Engage

Asked what would be the association’s next line of action if the government failed to suspend the implementation of the tax, he said the association would still engage and it was law-abiding and did not engage in politics.

“We do business, so we would do the best that we can to make sure that government would listen and then do the needful,” Mr Botwe emphasised. The association called for a better, deeper and broad-based stakeholder consultation on the idea of any excise tax on locally manufactured and that a well-defined Locally Manufactured Plastic List be established along with the appropriate guidelines to avoid unambiguity of the law.

“Indeed, it will be an unfair tax on products such as plastic chairs, plastic tables, plastic buckets plastic household wares, water tanks, PVC Pipes, plastic T&J, plastic crates, data duct pipes, paint gallons, industrial containers, lubricants and engine oil gallons,” he said, among others.  

Revenue

The association, Mr Botwe said demanded that revenue accruing from any future excise or environmental tax on plastics be dedicated religiously to plastic waste recycling.

In early March 2024, he said members of the Plastic Manufacturers started receiving calls from Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) officers requesting them to start paying a five per cent excise tax on all locally manufactured plastic products.