Following a meeting with the Regional Minister Simon Osei-Mensah and the Asantehemaa, traders and business owners in the Ashanti Region’s Kumasi city are starting to reopen their stores.
The Ghana Revenue Authority‘s decision to place tax officers in the shops of business owners to enforce tax compliance in the Kumasi metropolitan and the cost of doing business prompted the shopkeepers to go on a sit-down strike.
On Friday, October 14, 2022, the Regional Minister said in an interview with Accra 100.5 FM’s mid-day news that the decision to reopen the stores was made following his talks with GRA authorities, Traders Advocacy Group Ghana (TAGG), and the Adum Business Community.
He added that for the past three days, he had been holding series of meetings with the various stakeholders in the Kumasi metropolis to find a lasting solution to the impasse between GRA and traders.
He said the GRA has been directed to withdraw their tax officers from the shops of the business operators and maintain them at the big malls and shops in the Kumasi metropolis.
He said going forward, he would meet with various stakeholders every three months to ensure all the thorny issues are addressed.
He commended the leadership of the traders for adhering to the calls to re-open their shops in the CBDs of Kumasi.