E-levy to be reintroduced
Franklin Cudjoe has charged govt to explain the 1.75%
Franklin Cudjoe, founder and President of IMANI Africa, has indicated that the government of Ghana under the leadership of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is not communicating effectively why it is maintaining the 1.75% rate of the Electronic Transaction Levy, E-levy.
Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express programme on Monday, he indicated that, the government keeps trumpeting how E-levy will help in creating employment, accelerating development but it has refused to explain why it won’t back down from the 1.75% rate.
He, then, described the government’s promise of creating employment with the 1.75% rate as a scam.
Cudjoe explained, schemes such as the E-levy, NABCO and GYEEDA were unsustainable and were unprofitable to the country’s economy.
He said, it would have been more rewarding for the government to have invested in creating a conducive environment for the development of the private sector against creating employment by itself.
He noted that, it would be beneficial to know why the government is hell-bent on keeping the E-levy at 1.75% instead of compromising to a much lower rate.
“The greater challenge is that they are not communicating effectively why they want to maintain the 1.75%. It’s just that it should be done and part of it will be used on employment and rations. Seriously?” Franklin Cudjoe said.
He added, “I’ve always questioned the rationale for government to tax people, tax us and then create all these employment scams. I call them scams, from the days of GYEEDA and what have you. There’s a proliferation of these schemes as well.
“Government has no business in setting up or creating these jobs that they always say they’re trying to create. In any case, you’d have thought that the private sector would be incentivized enough to create the jobs. “You tell me, what has been the value addition of NABCO to the economy apart from blowing a lot of money? And almost all these employment agencies have zero return on value to the economy.”
Franklin Cudjoe, therefore, advised the government to forgo his commitment to use proceeds from the E-levy to create employment. “In any case, weren’t we told that the communication service tax was supposed to be used in creating employment? What has happened to that?” he said.
“The government is being too strong-headed and I fear that there seems to be nobody within the government, academics, technocrats and party foot soldiers who will stand up and say this is going to hurt us in the next election and it is clear that the sentiments are against the ruling government that they should back down from the standpoint of the percentage,” he concluded.
Franklin Cudjoe