Bawumia hails digitalization drive as a measure to curb corruption
Bawumia evades commentary on E-levy
Dr. Gideon Boako, the spokesperson for Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has explained why the Vice President did not give detailed commentary on the Electronic Transfer Levy otherwise known as E-levy at his April 7 public lecture.
In an interview on Joy News programme, PM Express, he denied assertions that Vice President was mute on the controversial subject stating that he gave a comment about the levy in the section of the government’s tax handle.
He mentioned that it was therefore not important to discuss whether E-levy was good or not as that stage had been surmounted.
“It’s not true [Bawumia did not speak about E-Levy]. We can go through his speech and I will show where he mentioned E-Levy. The conversation around E-levy before the passage of the bill and today are not the same.
“Prior to that government needed to make a case to justify why E-Levy was necessary and try to explain it to the understanding of people….we have gone through that process. Where we are today, we have a lot of tax handles.
“Some of which had been introduced by previous and this government in the past…some of which were introduced in the 2022 budget.
“E-Levy is part of the tax handles introduced in the 2022 budget. When you listen to the Vice President he talked about taxes this government has abolished or reduced and he talked about taxes that this government has introduced and E-Levy was mentioned,” Dr. Boako explained.
Asked whether the Vice President has backtracked on his earlier position of not taxing Mobile Money (MoMo), Dr. Boako said the E-levy was a government decision which all actors including the Vice President are bound by.
He indicated that the revenue tax measure was being “being supported and approved by Parliament of which the Vice President is part.
“Like I said earlier, every single decision that government makes, every actor in government is bound by that and the Vice President is a key figure so it’s [E-levy] is a government decision that is being supported and approved by Parliament of which the Vice President is part,” he said.
Pushed further, he added that, “You look at the situation that we find ourselves in and you see where the balance of risk tilts towards and I think the balance of risk tilts towards the fact that government should be able to cut down on borrowing, raise more revenue and make sure we are able to take care of a lot of the things we do such that we don’t impose additional burden on us by way of going to market to borrow”.
Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, delivered a public lecture on the economy after several demands from stakeholders particularly from the opposition National Democratic Congress over the recent economic crunch.
In his address, the Vice President blamed the ravages of the Covid-19 pandemic and the recent Russia-Ukraine crisis for the economic woes of the country.
Despite this, he assured that government was committed to implementing measures that will mitigate against the impact of such external factors.
