The Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, has described the stance taken by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) on the Electronic Transaction Levy (commonly known as the E-Levy) as misplaced.
On Friday (28 January), after further consultations, the Minority in Parliament rejected a reduction of the E-Levy to 1.5% from 1.75%.
Speaking at a town hall meeting on the levy in Takoradi in the Western Region, Ofori-Atta said the number of people paying tax towards development is woefully inadequate.
“So I think the NDC’s stance about not having the E-Levy may be misplaced … It is not because they are not patriotic, but when we do the numbers you will realise that clearly, we are at a point in our nation’s history that we need to do things differently,” Ofori-Atta said.
Question of dignity
He added: “To be able to cross the issues that are confronting us, such as youth unemployment, which affects all of us and really goes to the dignity of people who are home, and the issue of our debt, so that we can start mobilising our resources … to be able to do that [we must] ensure that all of us contribute.
“So the argument could be killed immediately if you say that … we have only 2.4 million people contributing taxes for the whole nation … Now that can’t be right, you know that,” he said.
The Finance Minister argued that the government has performed tremendously well in the past five years, introducing various initiatives to cushion Ghanaians.
“When you look really at what Akufo-Addo has done, there has never been interventions of that level, with regard to secondary education, health care, the underprivileged et cetera,” he said.
Missed start date
Presenting the 2022 Budget Statement to Parliament in November last year, the Finance Minister first announced that the government had decided to place a levy on all electronic transactions to widen the tax net and rope in the informal sector.
Ken Ofori-Atta said the new charge would be known as the “Electronic Transaction Levy, or E-Levy”.
“Electronic transactions covering mobile money payments, bank transfers, merchant payments and inward remittances, will be charged at an applicable rate of 1.75%,” Ofori-Atta said, “which shall be borne by the sender except for inward remittances, which will be borne by the recipient.
“This new policy comes into effect from 1 February 2022. The government will work with all industry partners to ensure that their systems and payment platforms are configured to implement the policy.”
As of January 2021, 38.9% of the population aged 15 and above had a mobile money account in Ghana.
The population share of mobile money users increased over the previous three years but decreased slightly in 2021 from 39% in 2020.
Fred Dzakpata
Asaase Radio 99.5 – tune in or log on to broadcasts online
99.5 in Accra, 90.7 in Ho, 98.5 in Kumasi, 99.7 in Tamale, 89.5 in Tarkwa, and 106.9 in Walewale
Follow us on Twitter: @asaaseradio995
#AsaaseRadio
#TheVoiceofOurLand
