E-levy should be earmarked to specific projects – Prof Lord
Ghanaians want to see what their taxes have been used for - UG lecturer
A senior lecturer at the University of Ghana Business School, Prof Lord Mensah, has said the 1.75 percent proposed e-levy was too harsh.
The senior lecturer said even though he understood the importance of the levy to government’s ability to raise its targeted revenue, tax policies were not targeted for only a year.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, on January 20, 2022, Prof Lord said the government should rather consider introducing the e-levy at a low threshold not higher than 1 percent.
“If you ask me whether that’s the best way to go about it, I would say it’s a bit too harsh to jump to the 1.75%,” he said.
“I understand that government needs the targeted amount it intends to raise with the levy within the fiscal year but tax policies are not policies that you may look at within a certain fiscal year. You may roll it up for about 5 years and achieve the target it wants."
“Government should run this e-levy policy as a project for which they will roll it out in phases,” he added
Prof Lord also stated that the e-levy should be earmarked to certain projects because government has a history of collecting revenue for the purpose and the monies are not used for that purpose.
“So, therefore, the government should come up with projects like e-levy roads, and you task me 1% and I see the 1% is working; giving me roads, creating jobs for my us, etc. hospitals, then the government can move to 1.25% which I’ll be ready to pay because it has already what my appetite with the project from the previous levies collected,” he said.
On the finance minister’s call for burden-sharing for the development of Ghana, Prof Lord said: "We accept that but we want to see evidence of what our monies are doing. The typical Ghanaian wants to see evidence of what their contribution to the nation is doing. Read Full Story
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