The Ghana Revenue Authority believed that by imposing tax stamps on all imported or locally produced textiles, the struggling textile industry would be freed from its impending collapse. GRA will make sure that even fabric-bearing tax stamps are permitted on the market so that fabric cannot be sold on the local market if they fall short of this. In this case, red tax stamps are zero-rated, which means they are selected from paying for the tax stamps.
They will only be applied to domestically produced fabric and polished prints. The blue tax stamps are for goods in transit and textiles that were in stock prior to the implementation. This step, according to the Ghana Revenue Authority and its stakeholders — including the Ministry of Trade and Industry— would revive the traditionally produced textile industry and aid in job growth. The Ghana Revenue Authority announced that police shall be deployed at the points of sale from January 2, 2024, in order to guarantee compliance with the policy. Nearly five years have passed since the government first decided to implement the tax mark policy to stop smuggling, piracy, and the dumping of fake goods onto the local market.
A plan for implementing the policy within two weeks was agreed upon by the government and the textile industry on September 9, 2019. On Friday, September 6, 2019, Alan Kyerematen, the curate of trade and industry at the time, met with industry stakeholders in Accra to discuss the plan. Despite requests for its implementation from the Textiles, Garment, and Leather Workers Union( TGLEU), the implementation plan has not been carried out.
After being put on hold for more than five decades, we are happy that the GRA has finally put the tax mark plan into effect. The flood of pirated fabrics onto the local market, which has been exacerbated by large production costs, is choking the once-vibrant textile industry, so we are concerned about the plan.
To carry out this care and keep it from becoming another lip service, we implore the GRA to make every effort. According to BrytGh, the task force formed in 2010 to stop the sale of piracy-related textile goods in regional markets included members of the Ghana Union of Trade Association( GUTA) and security agency personnel. The World Trade Organization's Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights( TRIPs) Agreement, which forbids governments from allowing infringed goods to enter the commercial system and from permitting their re-exportation, was used to establish the task force.
Despite calls for its activeness from market gurus, the anti-textile piracy task force has been acting for almost 13 years, which worrying. The BrytGh believes that the time has come to reassemble the workforce to oversee implementation in order to guarantee its complete victory. The BrytGh will continue to support the initiative with informative content, follow-ups, and pointers that will assist the GRA and its partners in flawlessly implementing this crucial policy, as has always been our contribution. This is based on the idea that, given the right care, the cotton sector and nearby businesses will bounce back to winning streaks and increase employment.
