A financial Economist at the University of Ghana, Professor Godfred Bopkin, has called on the government to completely scrap the controversial electronic transaction levy (e-levy) policy.
According to him, e-levy as a policy is conceptually wrong and deserves to be completely abolished to the scrap heap of history.
“Government should delete it (E-Levy). When something is conceptually wrong and it doesn’t meet certain basic principles of taxation, people have issues with it; even if it’s 0.1% . . . CSOs, Private sector said all that they could say about e-levy but sometimes it is as though somebody wants to do it to demonstrate where power lies,” he said, speaking on Peace Fm’s Morning Show ‘Kokrokoo’.
He further stated that when your policy announcement aligns with the expectation of the market, they pick on it and confidence is generated.
“Taxation is not a hammer where you treat everybody else in the market as a nail . . . you cannot tax your way out of poverty; it’s never done anywhere . . . ” he added.
The ruling NPP administration introduced E-Levy in May 2022 imposing a levy of 1.5% on electronic transfers to meet the challenge of low government revenue.
The levy was “to enhance domestic tax mobilization and expand the tax base and provide an opportunity for everyone to contribute towards national development”.
The initial rate proposed by the government was 1.75% but it was revised downward to 1.5% after strong opposition.
In the 2023 budget statement, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta disclosed the rate has been revised again from 1.5% to 1%.
Source: theGhanaianVoice.Com