2024 budget: Introduce policies to address needs of private sector – FABAG tells govt

The Food and Beverages Association of Ghana (FABAG) has urged the government to introduce policies that will address the concerns of businesses in the private sector in the 2024 budget.

The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, is scheduled to present the government’s 2024 Annual Budget Statement and Economic Policy to Parliament on Wednesday, November 15, 2023.

Ahead of the presentation, there have been calls for the government to significantly reduce its expenditure to rescue the ailing economy.

President of FABAG, John Awuni, underscored that though the private sector played a pivotal role in the country’s growth, it was currently underperforming because of high taxation and tariff rates.

Speaking in an interview on The Point of View on Citi TV on Monday, he stated, “Our expectation is that they will come out with policies that will address the private sector’s needs. We have said that the private sector is the engine of growth, but it appears that the private sector is not performing well due to high levels of taxation, due to high levels of tariff reviews.”

“So we are expecting that there will be major policies that will address the manufacturing and agricultural sectors in the country. We are expecting that the COVID-19 levy will be removed. We expect that the growth and sustainability levy will be removed. We expect that taxes that were also imposed on fruit juices, alcoholic beverages, and others will be removed.”

Mr. Awuni further said the government must strategically address the issue of unemployment in the country.