Seth Terkper, a finance minister under the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, wants the Akufo-Addo administration to take a second look at the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy) as it engages the International Monetary Fund for support.
On Friday (1 July 2022), Ghana announced that it is officially seeking support from the IMF to help address the economic crisis.
The Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, said the president had “authorised Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta to commence formal engagements” with the IMF.
The announcement followed a phone conversation between Akufo-Addo and the president of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, he said.
Poorly designed
Speaking on Saturday (2 July 2022) on The Forum – Asaase 99.5 Accra’s news analysis and current affairs show – Terkper said: “For me, the E-Levy is poorly designed.
“Even the Securities and Exchange Commission came with a letter assuring the investing public that they were going to have discussions with the Ministry of Finance on the structure.
“Because it’s taxing loans, it’s taxing savings, something we’d never done. So its design is poor and if we make concessions to business and industries and the rest, then we’re not going to realise it,” he said.
Terkper called on the government to state its official position on the E-Levy after making a U-turn on whether to accept another IMF bailout programme or not.
“The second reason is that the E-Levy is projected [to run at] 1.4% of GDP until 2025 … So it’s already part of the discussion … why we had the downgrade. So, I beg to differ. If it’s going to be temporary, let’s make it so. The E-Levy may not necessarily solve the problem,” Terkper said.
Fred Dzakpata
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