The government must step up education on the benefits of the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy) to Ghanaians in order to get a buy in on the policy, the embattled former deputy general secretary of the opposition NDC, Koku Anyidoho, has suggested.
His comment comes on the back of recent opposition to the controversial bill by the Minority in Parliament and a cross section of the general public.
“If you go back, Value Added Tax (VAT) when it was coming, history has a very interesting way of repeating itself… it was the same turbulence – the lack of understanding of what VAT was going to do for the country. I don’t know but maybe they are not communicating around the E-Levy very well,” Anyidoho told Asaase News.
“If they do it properly and they really get Ghanaians to understand that really there is a rationale and a reason for it,” he suggested.
Cooperate and let’s pass E-Levy
Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the Minister of Communication and Digitisation, has appealed to the minority and those opposed to the passage of the E-Levy to help and cooperate with the government to pass the bill.
Using the success chalked in the telecommunications industry as an example after the communications service tax was fiercely opposed upon its introduction in 2008, Ursula said the post-implementation of the E-Levy bill will be nothing short of success.
Speaking at the town hall meeting in Koforidua on Thursday (27 January), Owusu-Ekuful said: “I dare say and I appeal to them (opposition) to cooperate with the government and work with us to pass this levy as well because ultimately, the results that we got from the communication service tax which clearly did not destroy the industry, will also be evident, post-implementation of this levy as we are all working collectively to enhance access to and use of digital platforms.”
Speaking on the same platform, Ken Ofori-Atta, the Minister for Finance, said the introduction of the E-Levy by the NPP government is not the most egregious tax ever to be passed in this country.
Ofori-Atta said the introduction of the E-Levy has been necessitated by the country’s quest to develop using its own resources and not through constant borrowings from external sources.
The minister said the country cannot afford to enter into another programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as the restrictions could not help the country’s development at this time.
Fred Dzakpata
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