ICU urges government to maintain VAT exemption for textile industry

The Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) has appealed to government to maintain the zero VAT exemption for the textiles industry.

Addressing a gathering of ICU members at Tema in the Greater Accra Region, the General Secretary of ICU, Morgan Ayawine indicated that it will help protect the local textiles industry.

“The operation of Textiles Ghana, Akosombo Industrial Company Limited and Volta Star Textiles Limited, and Texstyles Ghana have been seriously hampered over the years due to lack of financial resources and government support to execute their function,” he said on April 10.

“These organizations are some of the state-owned enterprises that are distressed and need urgent resourcing and government support to make them once more viable and profitable as in times past, to bring relief to their workers whose fate has been hanging in the balance for a long time now” he explained.

Morgan Ayawine expressed worry that due to lack of support the textiles companies are not producing much.

“Currently textiles industry is operating under 50 percent of its installed capacity. This deficiency has had a ripple effect on the functions Volta Star Textiles Limited where Texstyle Ghana has been sourcing 25 percent of its grey baft needs, which constitutes 100 percent of Volta Star Textiles Limited’s entire production,” he bemoaned.

Mr Ayawine noted that, “the influx of pirated counterfeit of textiles products from outside Ghana which takes 70 percent of textiles market in Ghana negatively impact the sustainability of the local textiles industry. This is travesty of their patent and copy right and government must therefore enforce the textiles tax stamp and registration laws in textile designs to thwart the nefarious activities of foreigners in the textile market.”

The post ICU urges government to maintain VAT exemption for textile industry first appeared on 3News.

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