Minister of Communications, Dr. Edward Omane Boamah has hinted that in spite of the fact that government needed increased tax revenue to balance its budget the ministry would be ready to discuss waiving mobile handset import tax based on viable proposals from handsets dealers and manufacturers. “The help we can give them [handset dealers/manufacturers] is to offer them some tax waivers on the import of handsets if only they can put forward concrete proposals,” he said on Asempa FM’s Ekosiisen. Government early last month instructed all revenue agencies at the country’s ports to start charging the 20% import tax on mobile handsets and accessories amidst agitations and threats by the handset dealers and manufacturers to stop using the country’s ports. The dealers/manufacturers argued that the new tax had shot up total charges on their imports to over 40% and that would lead to a number of things, including increase in the retail prices of mobile handsets, smuggling of handsets into the country, collapse of the businesses of handset dealers, loss of jobs, and the return of the “phone snatching.” They noted that the a previous government had removed the import tax on handsets because it was difficult to implement, and it encouraged mass smuggling; so the handsets got unto the Ghanaian market alright, but government was not getting the required tax revenue. It was therefore replaced with the Communication Service Tax (CST) otherwise known as talk tax, which is easier to charge. But government recently decided to bring back the import tax on handsets in addition to the existing talk tax, and that has led to the agents of some giant global manufacturers like Nokia pulling out of Ghana, while others have their wares stuck at the ports because they have been affected by the new tax. Phone dealers initially closed down their shops and threatened not to sell phones until the import tax is removed; but they opened just after a day and decided to use negotiation rather than agitation. Some phone dealers have however laid-off workers and unconfirmed reports say Nokia’s sole distributor in Ghana, MidCom has also laid-off about 64 workers recently because it is unable to clear its goods at the ports. The phone dealers, together with the manufacturers have since written a petition to the Ministry of Communications, and copied the Ministries of Trade and Industry and of Finance, as well as the Office of the President, asking for the 20% import tax to be waived. Government had been silent on the matter, until recently, when Dr. Omane Boamah openly assured the phone dealers that government is ready to meet with them to discuss their demands and possibly waive some duties, provided they [the industry players] came up with viable proposals. He however noted that importance of the tax is to encourage the manufacturers to move towards establishing assembling plants in Ghana to provide more jobs for Ghanaian. “At least rlg and Tecno are assembling here and we believe the others can do same because in South Korea for instance, you cannot get a Nokia, Apple or Blackberry phone as affordable as you could get local brands like Samsung and LG – that is all part of government policy to encourage local industry,” he argued. Indeed, following the introduction of the import tax, Tecno has intensified its effort to establish an assembling plant in Ghana to produce one million handsets a month to serve the West African sub-region. China's Huawei has also said it plans to avoid the tax by establishing an assembling plant in Ghana soon.