Scores of market women in Kumasi have besieged the premises of the metropolitan assembly to demand a reduction in the newly introduced market levy.
The aggrieve traders say the hundred percent increment of the levy is unjustified.
The levy, according to the traders, has been increased from 50 pesewas to GHC2.
Local authorities have locked up shops of traders who have defaulted payment.
According to the traders, the latest levy hikes is adversely affecting their business.
“We cannot pay the GHC2 they are charging us now, we can’t pay. It is too much, shops that haven’t been able to pay have been shut down. How can they just move the levies from 50 pesewas to GHC2,” one of the angry traders lamented to Starr News.
Meanwhile, spokesperson for the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly Godwin Okumah Nyame has denied the claim by the women that the market levy was moved from 50 pesewas to GHC2.
“We haven’t increased it from 50 pesewas to GHC2, we have increased it from 50 pesewas to GHC1. The other issue is that not most of the shops have been locked out, it is only 15 shops that have been locked up because they attacked our revenue collectors.
“We have explained to them that the GHC1 has been on the cards since 2013, however, they came and prayed for a moratorium so we shelved it and decided to implement it this October. The issue with the market has to do with just a section, it is just one section that has decided not to pay,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ultimate FM’s Isaac Bediako Justice reports that the leadership of the ruling NPP in the region has intervened in the matter and the women have left the assembly.
Source: Ghana/StarrFMonline.com/103.5FM
