E-Levy reduced to 1.5% - Finance Minister

Minority still oppose 1.5% E-Levy

Minority wants the E-Levy to be dropped entirely

E-Levy will ensure Ghana does not go back to IMF, Ofori-Atta

Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has reduced the E-levy from the initially proposed rate of 1.75 percent to 1.5 percent, 3news has reported.

According to the portal, the finance minister came to this decision after meeting with the leadership of the Minority Caucus as part of consultations to ensure that both parties come to an agreement on the levy on Friday, January 28, 2022.

3news, however, reported the Minority Caucus are still opposed to the 1.5 rate for the E-Levy, adding they (the Minority) want the levy to be dropped entirely.

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.