E-levy: Ghanaians don’t want to fund your luxurious lifestyle – Twum Boafo to Akufo-Addo

Brawl in Parliament over E-levy

Stephen Amoah urges Ghanaians to embrace E-levy

E-levy reduced to 1.5%

Kojo Twum Boafo, a leading member of the National Democratic Congress, has argued that the overwhelming opposition to the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-levy) should not be viewed as a lack of willingness on the part of Ghanaians to pay taxes.

According to him, Ghanaians are averse to the E-levy because it smacks of expropriation and extortion by the state.

Contributing to a panel discussion on Citi TV, Twum Boafo, said that the luxurious and ostentatious lifestyle by President Akufo-Addo and members of his government is to be blamed for the resistance to the E-levy.

He said that Ghanaians have observed what he perceives to be dissipation of the public funds by the government and are not willing to fund such profligacy.

The former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Free Zones Authority cited President Akufo-Addo’s alleged hiring of luxurious private jets as one of the things fueling the opposition to the E-levy.

“Ghanaians are refusing to accept the E-levy because of the way you’ve mismanaged the other taxes you’ve collected. What they use the money for is to sit in 50-car SUV convoys, ride around in bulletproof Maybach.

“What they do with our taxes is to rent private aircraft at enormous expense for the president to fly in. In a country that you claim to be nearing economic collapse, the president of this republic still insists that he will fly around in jet which some say they’ve already procured,” he said.

Twum Boafo noted that instead of hiring private jets, the government could have channeled the funds into restarting a national airline.

He mentioned Togo as an example of a country that has used its resources well and now has a booming national airline.

“What would have happened if you use that money to start a new airline. Wouldn’t that money have created new jobs for young people. Wouldn’t we have created pilots and technicians. Wouldn’t we have spurned a whole new industry like the Togolese have with A-Sky,” he said.

Background

The government of Ghana is seeking to pass a new tax policy that will see the imposition of 1.5% levy on all electronic transactions.

The policy dubbed the E-Levy has generated fierce dissent from the opposition National Democratic Congress and its minority membership in parliament amidst various concerns from general populace.

The seeming equal number of representations in terms of numbers for the majority and minority in parliament has led to a delay in the government’s effort to pass the 1.75% levy on all electronic transactions.

The minority who have heavily opposed the E-Levy bill have on various occasions engaged the majority sides in heated confrontations over the bill, which in some instances degenerate into full-blown brawls in the chamber of parliament.