APA – Accra (Ghana)
The report that Ghana faced a trade deficit of GH¢4.5 billion in 2022 as imports soared to GH¢148.6 billion, overshadowing exports at GH¢144.1 billion is one of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Wednesday.
The Graphic reports that Ghana faced a trade deficit of GH¢4.5 billion in 2022 as imports soared to GH¢148.6 billion, overshadowing exports at GH¢144.1 billion.
The nation’s trade landscape saw Europe taking the lead as the primary trade partner, accounting for 35% of exports and 39% of imports.
Notably, Switzerland led Europe as Ghana’s major trade partner, dealing in gold. The Asian giant, China, dominated the Asian trade route, while South Africa and Canada played pivotal roles in Africa and North America, respectively.
1. Four commodities (gold bullion, crude petroleum, cocoa beans, cocoa paste) constitute about three-quarters (75.0%) of all exports.
2. For imports, 219 different commodities make up about three-quarters (75.0%) of all imports.
3. Four countries (Switzerland, China, Canada, and South Africa) account for over half (50.0%) of all exports.
4. Six countries (China, UK, Netherlands, USA, India, and Switzerland) are the source of about half (50.0%) of all imports
5. It is only in Africa and North America that the value of exports exceeds imports
6. The report highlights Ghana’s international trade vulnerability, which has the potential to constrain the strengthening of the Ghanaian economy.
This was contained in the Ghana 2022 Trade Vulnerability Report released today in Accra.
The report found that Ghana’s key exports, gold bullion and petroleum products, combined to form 96.9 billion cedis of the total trade volume, outlining the nation’s reliance on these commodities.
However, the report highlights concerns of trade vulnerability, emphasizing that the nation’s economy could be constrained due to these challenges including Balance of Payment Support and imported inflation.
The newspaper says that the Minority Caucus in Parliament has described as unfortunate attempts by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to justify the money it printed for the government in 2021 and 2022, which they (Minority) said was in contravention of Section 30 of the BoG (Amendment) Act, 2016 (ACT 918).
The BoG in its 2022 annual report and financial statements said it printed GH¢35 billion in 2021 and GH¢42 billion in 2022 to finance the government.
But the Minority in a statement issued and signed by the Minority Leader, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, in response to a statement issued by the BoG dated August 9, 2023 to justify the printing of the money for the government described the central bank’s action as a breach of its governing law.
The statement by the BoG was in response to the Minority’s press conference held on August 8, 2022 to raise concerns on the losses recorded by the BoG captured in the central bank’s 2022 report and financial statement.
The Minority said the amount of monies printed by BoG for the government both in 2021 and 2022 far exceeded the legally acceptable threshold of five per cent of the previous fiscal years’ total revenue.
“This the Bank did without cognisance of the legal duty imposed on the Governor of BoG to inform the Minister of Finance, who is required upon notification from the Governor of BOG to notify Parliament of the attainment of the five per cent threshold and/or the setting of a new limit of government’s borrowing,” the Minority said.
“Indeed, the facts show that BoG acted as law unto itself by wilfully engaging in the illegal printing of monies to finance the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia/NPP government both in 2021 and 2022,” it said.
The Minority also described as unacceptable the justification by the BoG for the losses of GH¢60.8 billion and the negative equity of GH¢55.1 billion it recorded in the year 2022.
“This illegal conduct of the Governor of BoG constitutes a criminal offence under section 67 of the Bank of Ghana Act and cannot be wished away by the flimsy justifications mounted by the Bank in the multiple press statements they have issued in the last couple of days,” It stated.
“As a matter of fact, contrary to claims by the Governor of the Central Bank and his deputies that they were committed to promoting a cash-lite economy, they have been printing higher denominations of new GH¢100 and GH¢200 notes,” the Minority observed.
“This together with the large injections of money into the economy caused currency-outside-banks to increase from GH¢14 billion in 2019 to GHȼ31.4 billion by 2022, representing an increase of over 124 per cent,” it added
The newspaper says that Value Added Tax (VAT) collections by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) from January and May this year amounted to GH¢1.2 billion.
This represent a 92.4 per cent increase of the GH¢649.93 million collected within the same period last year.
According to Assistant Commissioner Joseph Annan, Manager of the Accra Central Area Enforcement Unit of the GRA, the increase in VAT receipts was due to the VAT enforcement exercise and other measures instituted by the Authority to encourage tax compliance.
He was speaking to the media in Accra on the sidelines of a VAT enforcement exercise undertaken yesterday.
“We have made phenomenal gains with regards to VAT collection. We have recorded a 92.4 per cent year on year increase from GH¢649.93 million to GH¢1.2 billion.
Regular enforcement exercise and other measures including e-VAT introduction, VAT invigilation and mystery shopping have resulted in the huge improvement,” he stated.
Yesterday’s exercise saw four manag¬ers of Legacy Hotel at North Kaneshie, Kegali Hotel & Spa at Dansoman, Mascot Hotel, also at Dansoman Exhibition and Silver Cloud 68 Supermarket located at Mamprobi-Kamara arrested for failing to issue VAT invoices to clients.
Assistant Commissioner Annan said the four would have their statements taken to enable further investigations by the officers of the GRA.
He explained that, although the above businesses were registered for VAT, checks by the GRA indicated that they were not issuing VAT invoice, thereby evading the payment of VAT.
The actions of the operators, he said was in violation of section 41 of the VAT Act which mandates a registered business to issues VAT invoice at all time.
“The arrested persons would be hand¬ed over to the police, investigated and charged for their actions.
Officers of the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service would take the statement of those arrested after which the preemptive assessment would be established and the businesses would be required to pay immediately.
“After that the business would be rec¬ommended for full audit while the police continue with its investigations,” he said. Ghana records GH¢ 4.5bn trade deficits in 2022 – GSS Report
The value of Ghana’s total exports in 2022 stood at GH¢144.1 billion and total imports at GH¢148.6 billion, creating a trade deficit of GH¢4.5 billion.
This is contained in the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) maiden 2022 Trade Vulnerability Report.
The report which collected the 2022 trade data highlighted Ghana’s major trading partners and the products the country exports.
GIK/APA