MoMo users must be compensated, not punished with e-levy – MP

The Member of Parliament for Techiman North Constituency in the Bono East Region, Elizabeth Ofosu-Agyare says the government must rather reward people for putting their monies in their Mobile Money accounts instead of taxing them with 1.7%.

The MP said the government would rather incur cost in printing new currency denominations hence people should be encouraged to go cashless instead of the use of physical cash.

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) lawmaker made the observations in an interview with 3FM’s Sunrise hosted by Helen Appiah Ampofo on Tuesday.

“It is not that we don’t want the government to tax the people but to say the easiest way is the e-levy since that affects everybody, it is the lazy way of taxing”.

She explained that “the money you are going to transfer is not profit…it is your salary of which it has been taxed by the government”.

She said “the Telco’s will use their system to transfer, they will tax the money, then the government will tax the telcos. The vendor will also take a tax and then the government is also going to tax 1.7…and this amount to double taxation”.

Madam Ofosu-Agyare said “this is a lazy man’s approach in taxing the people. If the government has tax already and is taxing you again, then what is the government doing?

“You cannot tax an amount that you have taxed already. Now it is not fashionable to carry money around. The most elegant way to carry money is electronically so if I keep money in my wallet, I should be compensated. You are not punished for savings. They should be compensated.”

She said “because government will use money to print more money at a cost so those who decide to put the money in the wallet, the money doesn’t get dirty for the government to use money to print currency

Source:|3news.com|Ghana