2023 Budget: ICU calls on government to review freeze on employment  

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Accra-Ghana, Dec. 05, GNA – The Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union (ICU), Ghana, has called on the government to review the freeze on employment in the public service to alleviate the plight of the unemployed graduates.
The Union said the bane of the country’s high rate of unemployment required a deliberate policy and total commitment to address the issue and not freeze employment.
This was in a statement signed by Morgan Ayawine, the General Secretary, ICU copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra on the Union’s reaction to the 2023 budget statement.
The statement said the ramifications of unemployment on the national economy were wide and varied, resulting from social vices, especially among the youth in society.
“The freeze on employment can never have any positive effect on the national economy; it would rather exacerbate the already precarious economic situation in the country, and we believe that this is well known to economic analysts,” it said.
On the 2.5 per cent increase in the Value Added Tax specified in the 2023 budget, the Union said the economic hardship confronting the citizenry should have enabled the government to reduce or abolish some of the nuisance taxes to ameliorate the suffering of the ordinary Ghanaian, and not to worsen the tax burden on the citizenry.
The Union welcomed the reduction of the e-levy on electronic transactions by 0.5 per cent, but called on the government to review the decision to remove the threshold, since it would not inure to the benefit of the ordinary man.
The statement commended the government for collaborating with the Graphic Communication Group Limited (GCGL) to produce printing papers locally to feed the local market.
“The initiative will not only benefit the nation in foreign exchange appropriation for the import of printing papers, but also create employment for the youth and maximize GCGL’s profitability,” it said.
The Union in commemoration of Farmers Day commended the gallant farmers for their good work towards nation building.
“The agricultural sector, which encompasses food, and cocoa, continues to remain the key driver of the Ghanaian economy in spite of the oil find and exploration.”
“We could not have progressed as a nation without the toil and sacrifices of our farmers, who opted for farming to feed the nation as opposed to clamouring for white-collour jobs as some of their compatriots do,” it said.