The Ghana Printers and Paper Converters Association has called on the government for more tax waivers on imported raw materials used for the printing of textbooks.
This follows the announcement by the government to cede 100 percent of the printing of textbooks to local printers for the Ghana Education Service.
Although the association believes the directive will alleviate the challenges its members face and create more jobs, it wants more tax exemptions to ensure efficient production.
Speaking to journalists, the Executive Secretary of the Association, Emmanuel Turkson, called for government’s intervention to avoid price hikes in the textbooks they will produce.
According to him, they have been chasing the government for tax exemptions for a long time, but the government hasn’t listened to their plea.
“We have chased the Finance Ministry for so long, but they don’t want to give us tax exemptions, so we are still paying the duty on all our raw materials including the inks and all.”
“Even the Ministry of Education has given us a list of materials that are used for printing books, and we have been sent to Parliament and the Finance Ministry since 2015 to date, they don’t find it interesting and relevant to give us exemptions. So we want the government to support us in that regard.”
