The government has been urged to grant tax relief to Small Medium Enterprise cocoa processing companies to help them thrive in the agricultural sector.
Mr Osei disclosed this at a roundtable discussion on tax exemptions in the cocoa sector organised by SEND Ghana in partnership with OXFAM Ghana, under the"Fair4All" project in Accra last Tuesday. However, Act 1984 P.N.D.C.L. 81, hinders cocoa processing companies from purchasing cocoa beans directly from farmers for value addition, thereby causing the farmer to become less competitive on the local and international market, and unable to substantially contribute to economic growth.There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later.
Besides, Act 1984 which created COCOBOD, Tax regulations, he said also posed certain hindrances to the sector and needed to be addressed, adding that tax regulations, were well known to be an important part of the"business climate" in all countries. Executive Member for Cocoa Farmers Cooperative Association, Issifu Issaka said the government's inability to exempt small cocoa processing companies from indirect taxes might be contributing to the global decline in cocoa production.