Reversal of benchmark value reduction to take effect from January 4

The implementation of the reversal of the 50 percent benchmark value on imports will take effect from Tuesday, January 4, 2022.

The reversal will affect 43 items under three categories prescribed by the Ghana Revenue Authority.

The government introduced the benchmark policy in 2019 in accordance with the World Customs Organization’s policy of regular review of valuation database.

Under this policy, certain commodities are benchmarked to the prevailing world prices as a risk management tool, to reflect the true market dynamics of these commodities.

It also takes into consideration factors such as protection of health, the environment, and security, as well as protection of local industries.

In line with the reversal, relevant stakeholders were consulted with the aim of reaching a consensus on the implementation of the policy.

The government had hoped the benchmark value reduction would translate to lower prices of goods in the country, as well as reduce smuggling.

But the government has said these goals did not materialise.

About benchmark value reduction

The benchmark value, which is the amount taxable on imports, was reduced by 50 percent for some goods.

The import value for cars was also reduced by 30 percent.

The government’s hope was that easing the import regime would make Ghana’s ports competitive by increasing the volume of transactions and increasing revenue generated at the ports.

But as the government pushed its industrialisation drive, critics, like the Association of Ghana Industries, also called for a review of the benchmark value reduction policy.

It argued that imports that compete with locally manufactured products must be exempted from the policy as part of a cushion for local products.

The Ghana Union of Traders Associations had earlier called on its members to oppose the development.

The union argued that importers had to contend with increases in exchange rates, the cost of freight, among others.

 

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Fire reignited at South Africa parliament as suspect to appear in court

A new blaze at the complex housing South Africa’s parliament in Cape Town, South Africa, broke out as a suspect arrested in connection with the Sunday’s fire is due to appear in court on Tuesday.

Strong winds reignited the fire that broke out early Sunday and caused extensive damage to the national parliament building.

Firefighters had brought the blaze under control, but temperatures remained high inside and the wind picked up Monday afternoon.

The new fire “completely gutted” the fourth and fifth floors of the New Wing, above the national assembly, which are full of books and wooden bookshelves.

The fire was brought under control around midnight, with firefighters going through the “maze-like building, room-for-room” to extinguish hot spots, said Cape Town city officials in a statement.

The process will take a while, as wooden cladding in some rooms needs to be pulled apart to find any hidden spots.

A 49-year-old man arrested on the night of the fire is expected to appear in court Tuesday, facing charges of arson, as well as housebreaking and theft, according to a police statement.

Police noticed him when they saw the building on fire, and he was caught with allegedly stolen property.

He is believed to have entered the building through an office window.

“There is a possibility of other charges being added as there was a security breach here,” the elite Hawks police unit spokesperson Nomthandazo Mbambo told eNCA television.

The fire has caused the worst damage in the New Wing, housing the parliament’s lower chamber, whose roof collapsed. The roof of the Old Wing, dating back to 1884 and housing the National Council of Provinces, or upper wing, also partially collapsed.

Important sections, including a museum, were saved, as was an embroidered tapestry on the ground floor of the Old Assembly Building telling the story of the Eastern Cape.

National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said President Cyril Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address to a joint session of parliament will still go ahead on 10 February, but at an alternate location.

Parliamentary officials said lawmakers will still debate and approve the budget and committees will continue their work.

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Sudan coup: Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok resigns after mass protests

 Sudan's Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok has resigned after another day of mass protests rocked the capital Khartoum.

Thousands marched against a recent deal he had done to share power with the army, who staged a coup in October.

Chanting "power to the people", protesters called for a return to full civilian rule. But military forces again responded with force, leaving two people dead.

Mr Hamdok's decision to quit leaves the army in full control.

It is another blow to Sudan's fragile attempts at a transition to democratic rule after a popular uprising led to the overthrow of Sudan's long-term authoritarian President Omar al-Bashir in 2019.

In a televised address, Mr Hamdok said the country was at a "dangerous turning point that threatens its whole survival".

He said he had tried his best to stop the country from "sliding towards disaster", but that "despite everything that has been done to reach a consensus... it has not happened".

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Civilian and military leaders had made an uneasy power-sharing agreement after the army staged a coup on 25 October and initially placed Prime Minister Hamdok under house arrest.

Under the agreement reached with Mr Hamdok in November, the reinstated prime minister was supposed to lead a cabinet of technocrats until elections were held. But it was unclear how much power the new civilian government would have, and protesters said they did not trust the military.

Thousands of people were on the streets of the capital Khartoum and the city of Omdurman on Sunday, chanting and calling on the military to leave politics alone.

On social media, activists have said 2022 will be "the year of the continuation of the resistance".

More than 50 people have been killed at protests since the coup, including at least two on Sunday, according to the pro-democracy Sudan Central Doctors' Committee.

Coup leader Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has defended last October's coup, saying the army had acted to prevent a civil war. He says Sudan is still committed to the transition to civilian rule, with elections planned for July 2023.

Analysis by Emmanuel Igunza, BBC News

January 1 marked Sudan's Independence Day but there's little to celebrate in the country at the moment.

The resignation of PM Abdalla Hamdok is a big blow to the military leaders who had thought an agreement with Mr Hamdok would appease protesters and legitimize their stay in power.

Clearly those calculations were wrong. But it means the army are now firmly in power, reversing gains made as the country attempted to return to civilian rule.

The current political crisis now threatens to return Sudan to the authoritarian years of former ousted leader Omar al-Bashir.

And there's also the risk that the country could go back to being a pariah state with the likes of the US already indicating that they would sanction those impeding a return to civilian rule.

Given Sudan's economic struggles, that could have an even worse effect on the lives of Sudanese people.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-59855246

Anger at Angolan president's 'relative hunger' comments

 A statement this weekend by Angola’s President João Lourenço that appeared to downplay the problem of hunger in the country has led to a lot of angry comments on social media.

In a short televised clip, Mr Loureço told supporters of his MPLA party that despite political opponents always complaining about hunger in the country “hunger is relative”.

Mr Lourenço was responding to the criticism that his party, despite decades in government, has failed to deal with poverty and hunger.

“There is talk of hunger and our opponents today wake up in the morning and at night singing a song: ‘Hunger, hunger, hunger.’ Hunger is always relative. The country already has a lot of food production.”

In the first six months of last year alone around 8,500 children died from hunger in Angola, according to data from the National Directorate of Public Health (DNSP), as reported by Novo Jornal.

That’s one of the reasons why Mr Loureço’s statements have sparked controversy.

Priest Jacinto Pio Wacussanga, the coordinator of the non-governmental organization Plataforma Sul, told the BBC that he was “shocked” by the statement.

“There is no such thing as relative hunger, there is absolute hunger in Angola,” the religious leader said.

In September this year, the UN's World Food Program estimated that more than 1.3 million people in southern Angola were facing “severe hunger as the worst drought in 40 years leaves fields barren, pasture lands dry and food reserves depleted”.

91-year-old woman’s family wants answers as two remain missing after Colorado fires

 

SUPERIOR, Colo. (KUSA) - The look of the night may be different, but the question remains the same: What happened to Nadine Turnbull?

“But it’s difficult, difficult not knowing. (I’d) much rather know,” said Hutch Armstrong, Turnbull’s grandson-in-law.

He said he and his family reported Turnbull was missing after his cousin could not get her out of their home in old town Superior during the wildfire Thursday.

“They tried to go out the front door with the neighbor. It was engulfed. Checked the back door, it was engulfed,” Armstrong said.

A "historic windstorm" with gusts over 100 mph fueled a vicious wildfire in Colorado. More than 30,000 people were forced to evacuate, and hundreds of homes have been destroyed.

He said their cousin tried to go back for her, but firefighters pulled her away.

“She says two times, ‘She was right behind me, right behind me,’” Armstrong said.

With fire bearing down, he said they had to leave, and the family feared the worst about grandma Turnbull.

“Just a nice person, genuine person, Christian lady. In fact, my wife went over there, what, the day after Christmas, was talking to her and she said she’s doing good. She said, ‘I’m going to live to be a 100,’” Armstrong said.

Nadine moved to old town Superior with her husband in 1965.

Hundreds of Colorado homes lost and tens of thousands of residents told to evacuate due to fast-growing wildfires.

Armstrong said they have started the grieving process, describing Turnbull as “just loving, caring, always worried about everybody else was doing.”

Then Armstrong said they heard this from Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle on Friday: “Good news. We still have no reports of casualties or fatalities. The missing person we had last night has been accounted for and is well.”

“And, then you hear that there’s no deaths, reported her missing. That’s the only one they said one woman reported missing. It just doesn’t make sense,” Armstrong said.

The sheriff later confirmed that two people are missing.

Armstrong said the hardest part is just not knowing.

“I do think we have a right to know. If there’s such a woman who was reported missing and is safe, why can’t I get the information if it’s her or it’s not?” he asked.

Armstrong says authorities won’t give his family any information, and they just want to know what happened to grandma Turnbull.

“After hearing the news today, we were a little bit, just want to know,” he said.

Copyright 2021 KUSA via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved.

Twitter permanently suspends Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s personal account over covid-19 misinformation

 Temporary suspensions in summer came after she falsely claimed that the coronavirus was ‘not dangerous’ for some people.

Twitter has permanently suspended the personal account of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), saying Sunday that the congresswoman repeatedly violated the company’s covid-19 misinformation policy.

The suspension came hours after she published a tweet falsely suggesting “extremely high amounts of Covid vaccine deaths.” Included was a chart featuring data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, which details self-reported post-vaccine health issues that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns do not imply causation.

The congresswoman’s verified personal account had been temporarily suspended two times over the summer. In July, she lost access for 12 hours after falsely claiming that the coronavirus was “not dangerous for non-obese people and those under 65.” A month later, she faced a week-long suspension after falsely tweeting that the coronavirus vaccines were “failing.”

Twitter on Sunday cited a “strike” system for violations of its covid policy, which bars users from sharing content that is “demonstrably false or misleading and may lead to significant risk of harm.” Five or more strikes lead to a permanent suspension.

“We’ve been clear that, per our strike system for this policy, we will permanently suspend accounts for repeated violations of the policy,” Katie Rosborough, a company spokeswoman, said in an email to The Washington Post.

Responding via a statement on the messaging app Telegram, Greene lambasted Twitter, saying it “is an enemy to America and can’t handle the truth. That’s fine, I’ll show America we don’t need them.” She shared the message through other social media outlets where she has a presence, including Gettr, a conservative-friendly site led by former Donald Trump adviser Jason Miller.

On Twitter, Greene maintains access to her congressional account, @RepMTG, as it is not in violation of company policies, Rosborough confirmed. The congresswoman’s most recent tweet from that account was a Dec. 24 video wishing her followers a merry Christmas.

Read more:https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/01/02/marjorie-taylor-greene-twitter-suspension/

Former al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria seeks to soften its brand

 IDLIB, Syria — The Islamist militants attacked the radio station for years, because it played music, because it hired women, because its liberal values posed a challenge to Syria’s zealous men with guns.

Lately, though, the attacks on the station have stopped, and its tormentor — a militant group once affiliated with al-Qaeda called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham — is trying to convince Syrians and the world it is no longer as radical or repressive as it once was.

The group, also referred to as HTS, gained notoriety a decade ago as the most formidable Islamist rebel formation trying to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad. The organization came to represent the dark forces metastasizing during Syria’s civil war: a jihadist movement that drew extremist fighters from around the world and sought to establish an Islamic state.

Now the group says its focus has shifted to providing services to millions of people in Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province through a fledgling government. It severed ties with al-Qaeda five years ago and says it is cracking down on other extremist groups. The founder of HTS, a veteran jihadist once seemingly ubiquitous in military fatigues, these days is photographed wearing suits.

“That faction that used to harass us is trying to show people that they are moderate,” said Abdullah Klido, the chief executive of the radio station, called Radio Fresh. “They are trying to organize things so they appear in the image of a state.”

The unfolding experiment in Idlib provides a rare look at how a militant movement transforms — and rebrands — to survive.