E-levy to be resubmitted to parliament
Stakeholders, general public hit against E-levy
Senior Vice President of IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil, has stated that government’s communication on the implementation of the Electronic Transaction levy is a disrespect to the intelligence of Ghanaians.
He said the reports being sent out by government and the majority in parliament are inconsistent, giving the minority enough room to vehemently hit against the tax’s implementation.
Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday, the private legal practitioner described the tax policy as “unpopular”.
“Sometimes, it’s very interesting how people come and spin and expect that we believe it, assuming that we don’t know what is going on."
“In the first place when this thing [E-levy debate in Parliament] went bad, we came on this show [and] they told us that they have passed it.”
“They’ve gone back to do the so-called consultations and in doing that, they are creating these crowds of selected people and excluding other people, as if we won’t know, as if we can’t tell.
“There is too much spin and now the spin has gotten to the point where it is a disrespect of our intelligence,” he lamented.
Kofi Bentil said “if they [the Majority] had the numbers, they would be on the floor and they would be pushing this through. It is very clear that the E-levy is extremely unpopular [and] it is giving the NDC a lot of energy to continue to fight it.”
According to him, it will take quite a lot for government to successfully pass the bill adding that, “even if they do, they will pay a very high price for it.”
“There are actually alternatives to E-levy and there are ways to solve the problem.”
The Electronic Transaction Bill has come under major backlashes from stakeholders and the general public after it was announced by the finance minister in his presentation of the 2022 budget to parliament last year.
The 1.75 levy according to Ken Ofori-Atta will cover all financial transactions above 100 cedis performed electronically, including inward remittances.
Meanwhile, the Minister says, broader consultations are being made after which the bill will b resubmitted to parliament for approval.
Senior Vice President of IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil