Interplast Limited, West Africa's leading producer of plastic pipe systems, has called for a tax waiver on the raw materials the company imports for production.

The Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Interplast Limited, Sivnesh Kumar RE, who made the appeal, in an interview with the Ghanaian Times, on the sidelines of the 5th and 2023 Ghana Mining and Energy Summit, said that would help companies to produce some mining inputs locally.

The 5th Mining and Energy Summit organised by the Ghana Chamber of Mines was on the theme "Harnessing Mining and Energy Potential for Sustainable National Development."

Ghana has regained its position as the largest gold producer in Africa after increasing her gold production by 32 per cent to 3.74 million ounces in 2022 from 2.82 million ounces in 2021.

He said the high import cost impacted badly on the operations of the company, which produced polythene, PVC and corrugated pipes for the Ghanaian market.

Mr Kumar RE observed that the high import duties was contributing to the high cost of operations of the company and the pricing of its products.

The COO explained that Interplast, which had consistently being winning the Local Manufacturing and Support Services Company of the year, for the past seven years, had ventured into the production of HDPE Co Extruded White pipes, exclusively used by the mining companies locally.

He said the pipe was previously imported from Australia.

Mr Kumar RE said the mining industry remained one of the big business lines of the company.