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The Association which is the umbrella body of value-adding businesses and manufacturers in the country said such a move was necessary to guide purposeful spending as it would not be mixed with the general government revenue kitty.

 

The President of the AGI, Nana Owusu-Afari, made the suggestion at the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants (ACCA) Sustainability Conference in Accra.

 

He said instead of adding the tax revenue to the Consolidated Fund, it “should be put into an environmental fund to prevent it from getting missing”.

 

Such a fund, the President said, “should then be available to promote the establishment of recycling plants for plastic waste and other products. The private sector can then access it an interest rate of less than 10 per cent”.

 

Nana Afari further suggested that the said environmental fund would also be controlled by a group of people, including a board of directors, who would oversee its disbursements as happens with any other fund in the country”.

 

The government, through its 2011 budget and economic policy statement, slapped a 20 per cent tax on all plastic materials as a way of “promoting the environment”.

 

Revenues from the said tax which took effect earlier this year are currently channeled into the Consolidated Fund, the central public revenue account, but the AGI President said that was not “the best place to channel the funds into”.

 

“If you put them into the Consolidated Fund, it would mix up with everything and would also not serve the purpose which the tax was meant to address, or protect the environment,” Nana Afari further advised.

 

He also called on Corporate Ghana, especially organizations dealing with plastic materials, to adopt sustainable initiatives towards handling the current plastic menace, adding that Ghana “risks losing the fight against waste if the sustainability strategies of organizations do not address these environmental concerns”.

 

On the impact of the rising imports into the country on indigenous businesses, Nana Afari said, “we need to pause and ask; are we promoting sustainable development in Ghana when industries are collapsing and giving way to imports?”

 

According to him, Ghana was “happily buying and consuming the so-called cheap second-hand clothing and tyres, regardless of where they come from, thereby collapsing our local textile industry and causing the carnage on our roads”.

The ACCA sustainability Conference, which was on the theme “Accounting for Sustainability”, is part of the professional body’s initiative to create awareness among companies operating in the country for them to adopt sustainable strategies as a way of replenishing the environment in their respective business dealings.

 

It was attended by ACCA members. Speakers included Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin, the Okyenhene of the Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Area, a pioneer of environmental sustainability, and some chief executive officers and representatives from multinational companies and academia.