E-levy: Pull the brake; tackle wastage otherwise it’ll be meaningless – Bokpin

A Professor at the University of Ghana Business School, Godfred Bokpin, has said the just-approved E-levy is not the panacea for the challenges facing the country.

He explained that government keeps introducing taxes in order to develop the country however, the problems have not be solved owing to the wastage and ineffectiveness in the system.

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a forum held at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) on Tuesday March 29, he said “Unlike the way government sought to create the impression that when we pass E-levy, it is like, everything is okay.

“That is not true because the E-levy is not the panacea to your problems, it is not a panacea to the wastage, it is not the panacea to the recklessness, it is not the panacea to the inefficiencies, it is not a panacea to the structural bottlenecks that keep sending us to the IMF.

“We have had other layers of taxes that have been introduced in the last couple of years including Covid-19 levy, Sanitation levy, so if we don’t pull the brakes and look at critical questions of reducing wastage and ineffectiveness, we will keep on adding layers of indirect taxes and yet the problems will persist.”

Parliament passed the E-levy on Tuesday March 29.

The Minority staged a walkout during the second reading on the proposal. They walked out after the Minority Leader leader Haruna Iddrisu said the NDC MPs remain united in opposing the policy.

Contributing to the E-levy debate on the floor of the House on Tuesday March 29, he described the policy proposal as punitive which will further increase the “the high cost of doing business in the country.”

“E-levy is the nuisance of nuisance tax,” he said, adding that “businesses are suffering under your watch. We are united that we will not support E-levy, we will not vote for E-levy.”

The Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu told the the Minority and all Ghanaians to focus on the utilization of the revenue by the government.

Addressing a press conference in Accra on Tuesday March 29 after the approval of the E-levy, he said “The purpose of this bill that we have gone through is really to broaden the tax base of our country and to increase revenue mobilization domestically.

“I am not too sure that anyone of us in Parliament, Minority or Majority, will disagree that where we are as a country, we need to look inwards to see if it will be possible for us to increase revenue streams from within our own household, which is what the E-levy seeks to do.

“The matters that should really confront us as members of Parliament is what we are going to apply the monies on. The bill provides that we are going to apply it to the development of physical infrastructure, that is number one.”

Source: 3news.com|Ghana