Bussiness
Premix fuel scarcity pushes fish prices up
Thumbnail Ho Economics Premix Fish
Mr Seth Kedey, the Deputy Volta Regional Chief fisherman has hinted of a rise in the price of fish this festive season (yuletide) occasioned on scarcity of premix fuel.
According to him, the public would have to pay more for fish due to the unavailability of premix fuel at the various landing beaches along the country’s Coast.
Mr Kedey, who doubles as the National Public Relations Officer for the Ghana National Canoe Fishermen Council (GNCFC) gave the hint in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the sidelines of this year’s farmer’s day celebrations in Keta in the Ketu Municipality of the Volta region.
“It’s been more than four months without premix fuel, the premix is not there – we are buying from the regular pumps, which is very expensive- you have to buy super and mix it with diesel to get premix to embark on your fishing expedition,” he said.
“We all know what petroleum price hikes come along with- prices of everything shoot up. In recent past you could buy a pan of fish for between GHC 400-500, but now that same pan of fish sells at GHC 1000- whatever price we buy fuel to embark on an expedition, would have to be transferred to the customer.”
Mr Kedey added that the fisher folk are now helpless considering the current state of affairs with most of them now out of business adding that the few canoe owners who are able to afford the expensive fuel, incur huge debts here and there and that’s a source of worry.
He appealed to government to do something about the premix shortage to keep the fisher folk in business to support their livelihoods and of their dependents.
Fishermen in all four fishing regions in the country have in recent times raised concerns about the shortage of premix fuel at the landing beaches, a situation they said was taking a toll on their operations.
They have had to resort to the buying of the fuel meant for vehicles at cut-throat prices to power their outboard motors to embark on fishing expeditions with nothing done by the authorities to resolve the situation, they said. -GNA
Bussiness
Ghana’s GDP shows economy is fast recovering despite DDEP – Finance Ministry
Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) indicates a rapid economic recovery despite global challenges and ongoing debt restructuring, according to the Ministry of Finance (MoF).
The Ministry in a statement today indicated that latest data from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), cumulative economic growth for the second quarter (Q2) of 2024 reached 6.9%, a notable increase from the 4.7% recorded in the first quarter of 2024.
The MoF statement further noted that, “The economy’s robust recovery is in response to the macroeconomic stability and growth interventions that government is pursuing under our IMF-supported Post Covid-19 Programme for Economic Growth (PC-PEG).”
According to them, the overall real GDP growth for the first half of 2024 rebounded strongly, with year-on-year GDP growth averaging 5.8% for the period, significantly higher than the 2.9% recorded in the same period in 2023.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
Read full statement below
Bussiness
Facebook, Youtube, online trading companies must be taxed – Deputy Finance Minister
The Deputy Finance Minister Dr Alex Ampaabeng, has proposed that online trading companies should be taxed to bolster the economy.
He noted that these companies, both local and international, generate significant revenue from their Ghanaian clients, which underscores the necessity for taxation.
In an interview with Bernard Avle on Channel One TV’s The Point of View, Dr Ampaabeng pointed out various potential revenue sources for Ghana, including online businesses and content creation companies.
He questioned why other national companies operating in Ghana are taxed, but social media platforms like Youtube and Facebook, which run numerous advertisements, are not included in the Ghanaian tax system.
According to him, these social media companies earn profits from the advertisements they display, and online trading companies also generate income from the sale of their products and services.
He mentioned online trading companies such as Jiji, Jumia, and Tonaton, which he believes surpass all physical marketplaces in Ghana in size.
According to him, “I can’t think of a country which has not gotten a digital service tax system of some sort, so Ghana is long overdue. Just to make an example so that people will appreciate where I’m coming from. Go to Youtube and play a video, within one or two minutes, you are going to watch about two, or three adverts.”
“What it tells you is that Facebook or Youtube is making profits right here in Ghana. Go to your Facebook account, and you are going to see a number of adverts on your right, left. What it is telling you is that Facebook is making profits right here in Ghana and not being taxed. Meanwhile, there are companies operating in Ghana, for jurisdiction reasons, of course, that are being taxed,” he said.
The Deputy Minister added that “So then, it comes to the question of the application of our tax laws. Revenues generated in Ghana are subject to taxes. We have Facebook, TikTok and all those players, these are digital platform owners.”
He stressed, “Then we have the digital or market players, here we are talking about individuals who are using the digital platforms. We have Jiji, Jumia, Tonaton, these combined, are bigger than all physical marketplaces in Ghana. And it tells you the volume of transactions, that are going on there.”
He expressed his hope that individuals earning online profits from Ghanaian residents would be taxed.
“There are conversations ongoing, I wouldn’t want to pre-empt anything, maybe in the future, it might not be anytime soon, what I would like to see, is a Ghana where people who are earning all forms of profits in the country are subject to taxes. People who are trading online to Ghanaian residents, people who are generating revenue from Ghana are allowed to pay taxes,” he noted.
Additionally, he proposed a collaboration with the government to curb cybercrime by registering and verifying these online trading companies.
“We can have a system where the government engages these operators, so individuals will submit their Ghana Card and are registered and verified,”he concluded.
Source: Citinewsroom.com
