‘Incorporate textbook policy in Procurement Act’

Feb 3, 2009
Spread

THE Ghana Printers and Paper Converters Association (GPPCA) has called on the government to incorporate the Textbook Development and Distribution Policy for Basic Education into the Public Procurement Act.
That, it said, was to ensure that the Ministry of Education complied with the 60 per cent requirement of Ghanaian participation in the printing of local course materials.
The Executive Secretary of the GPPCA, Mr William Turkson, who made the call in an interview with the Daily Graphic, said the lack of compliance of the policy was affecting local printers.
He said once the policy was complied with, “it would help to build the capacities of local printers, generate employment opportunities for Ghanaians, as well as boost the country’s Gross Domestic Product.”
“We are prepared to take more people for vacation and permanent employment. We have the capacities to run three shifts,” he stated, adding that local printers had been treated unfairly over the years, and that such a practice was affecting their operations.
Mr Turkson said the foreign printers were operating under a freezone system, and so had tax and export rebates, among other tax exemptions.
“Ghana government exempts them from all taxes. The government relies on the UNESCO Convention known as the Florence Agreement, which was signed in 1950 and 1976 to grant exemptions,” he explained.
He said it was stated in the convention that if taxes shall be levied on imported book, it should not be more than what pertained to the local industry.
However, Mr Turkson said, local printers paid 32 and half per cent taxes on raw materials imported in addition to about 30 per cent interest on loans from the banks.
He indicated that local printers had invested and installed modern printing machines that could be used to print quality books and ensured prompt delivery.
Mr Turkson named some of the printing houses as Innolink, Bulk, Checkpoint, Safeway, Fon, Yasarko, Type, Sakoa and Acts Commercial.