Parliament has passed the Excise Bill, 2026, officially scrapping excise duties on locally manufactured fruit juices across the country.
The legislative move aims to lower retail prices, promote healthier lifestyle choices, and boost Ghana’s local agro-processing industries.
The approval follows an announcement made last week by the Minister for Finance, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, during the presentation of the Mid-Year Budget Review.
The legislation establishes a comprehensive framework for the imposition and collection of excise duties on selected imported and locally manufactured excisable goods. It also provides for the mandatory use of Excise Tax Stamps on designated excisable products.
Moving the motion on the floor of the House on Tuesday, July 28, 2026, a Deputy Minister for Finance, Thomas Ampem Nyarko, explained that the law introduces a sliding tax scale for beer and other beverages to incentivise local sourcing.
“The other thing we are seeking to do is to introduce a sliding scale for use of raw materials so that we can encourage the use of local raw materials in the manufacture of beer and other drinks so that the more raw materials you source locally to produce, the rate of excise duty goes down,” he said.
He noted that removing excise duties on local fruit juices would significantly reduce production costs and make domestic brands far more competitive.
“We are removing taxes on juices, local juices that are produced here, and so our Blue Skies, our Akumfi juice factory, will all be zero-rated, and that will bring the prices low, and it will encourage us to shift from the consumption of alcohol to fruit juices because we want to promote good health,” he said.
Under the new excise duty regime, beverage manufacturers who rely heavily on domestic agricultural inputs will enjoy lower tax rates, driving growth throughout the agricultural value chain.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
