Ghana’s controversial E-Levy passed on president’s birthday

Parliament has passed the controversial E-Levy by mainly the Majority side of the House after the Minority staged a walkout.

The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, said his side still opposes the E-Levy hence the walkout.

Iddrisu urged President Akufo-Addo to withdraw the E-Levy Bill from the House as the Minority will not have anything to do with the controversial Bill

Earlier, Ken Ofori-Atta, the Minister for Finance said the government has decided to reduce the E-Levy charges from 1.75% to 1.5%.

He said the decision for the reduction was due to the various stakeholder engagements undertaken by the government.

Moving for the E-Levy Bill to be read for the second time in Parliament on Tuesday (29 March), Ofori-Atta said: “…the government has also decided to reduce the rate of the levy from 1.75% of the transfer to 1.5% of the transfer.”

He said the object of this bill [E-Levy] is to broaden the tax of the country and impose a levy on electronic transfers to enhance the government’s drive for revenue mobilisation.

Missed start date
The Finance Minister had earlier proposed a state date of 1 February 2022 as the implementation date for the new levy.

Presenting the 2022 Budget in Parliament last November, Ofori-Atta said: “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.”

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.

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.

Source: Daily Mail GH