E-levy: These are the reasons why Akufo-Addo’s government is persuading you to pay

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) government’s introduction of an electronic levy in the 2022 budget and financial state has dominated the Ghanaian news space since November.

The levy, which targets financial transactions in the country, has stirred up a lot of varying opinions form politicians, economists, social commentators and ordinary Ghanaians.

Though the levy is yet to be passed due to the strong stance of Members of Parliament from the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the government has embarked on a nationwide townhall meetings to make a case for its passing.

According to the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, the Ghanaian economy stands to collapse if the e-levy is not passed and the country has to go back to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for assistance.

Ken Ofori-Atta, at the government’s town-hall meeting to discuss the E-levy on Thursday, 27 January 2022, said, the passage of the E-levy will save the country from falling back on the IMF for financial assistance, which, he said, would be disastrous.

“When we were in the IMF programme, we couldn’t pay for nurses and teachers,” he said; “we couldn’t hire any more because there were restrictions on that. I mean, it’s just really thinking you can go back to Egypt.”

“In a way, we have forgotten how difficult and tenacious that master from Washington was.”

“So, we can deal with them for them to give us advice but we need not ever get into an IMF programme [again]. If we don’t do this E-levy, we’re just pushing ourselves in a way that would potentially end up in such a disaster,” Ofori-Atta said.

Though the Finance Minister has given the above and other reasons why Ghanaians should the levy, these are the main reasons Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s government wants you to pay the controversial levy.

1 . The shift from traditional to digital payments systems is having a negative impact on domestic revenue mobilisation.

2 . To support the development agenda (e.g.: Road infrastructure, tackle youth unemployment (YouStart) build our digital infrastructure.

3 . The need to reduce the budget deficit from an estimated 9.4% in 2021 to below 5% by 2024, in line with the Fiscal Responsibility Act and reduce our debt burden

4 . To widen the tax net for all Ghanaians to share the burden of providing for National Development

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