The Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) has appealed to the government to restore the “Vehicle Import Tax Waiver”. At the recent I8th Biennial Conference, the association noted that nurses and midwives across the country face difficult transportation issues. Even though the government has made efforts for workers to patronize cars assembled in Ghana, the poor salary of nurses and midwives in the country makes it impossible for them to buy these locally assembled vehicles.

The vehicle import tax waiver was introduced by the former President of Ghana, John Agyekum Kufuor as one of the initiatives to improve the working conditions of health workers and other government workers.

However, beginning January 1, 2014, the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress government scraped the waiver introduced by the previous government which enabled health workers to import vehicles without paying duties at the port.

The GRNMA has therefore appealed to the government to reinstitute the Vehicle Import Tax Waiver to enable nurses and midwives to acquire their own vehicles from abroad.