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Top member of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Gabby Otchere-Darko has expressed his displeasure on complaints by Ghanaians about government decision to raise revenues through levies.
According to the former Executive Director of the Danquah Institute, he is surprised that same Ghanaians who mounted an ease pressure on the government to fix the country are complaining about the new levies by the government to help run the affairs of the country.[ads2]
This comes following the government decision to introduce E-levy to widen the tax net and rope in the informal sector, which will enable the government to undertake developmental projects as said by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta when presenting the 2022 budget statement.
Reacting to the complaints by Ghanaians, Gabby Otchere-Darko tweeted that, “Ghana’s development paradox. You say you want the country fixed. Yet, you are against raising revenue to get it fixed! Motives matter!, ”[ads3]
According to the Finance Minister, the total value of transactions for 2020 was estimated to be over GHS 500 billion as compared to GH¢78 billion in 2016 while total mobile money subscribers and active mobile money users have grown by an average rate of 18% and 16% respectively between 2016 and 2019.
He stated that after considerable deliberations, Government has decided to place a levy on all electronic transactions to widen the tax net and rope in the informal sector. This shall be known as the “Electronic Levy or E-Levy.”
“Electronic transactions covering mobile money payments, bank transfers, merchant payments and inward remittances will be charged at an applicable rate of 1.75%, which shall be borne by the sender except inward remittances, which will be borne by the recipient.” – Ken Ofori Atta told Parliament.[ads5]
