NPP says the promise is a scam
E-Levy implementation starts on May 1
Paul Apreku Twum-Barimah, Member of Parliament for Dormaa East, has dismissed a promise by former President John Dramani Mahama to scrap the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-levy) if elected as President.
The Dormaa East lawmaker, who is in the House on the ticket of the governing New Patriotic Party, NPP, said in an interview with Citi News that Mahama and the National Democratic Congress, NDC, had no track record of keeping promises.
“You remember when these NDC guys promised a one-time premium for the National Health Insurance Scheme under the late President Mills when Mahama was his running mate and later Vice President? What happened to it?
"Do you remember they said Free SHS was not feasible and later came back to claim it when it was successfully implemented by the Akufo-Addo-led NPP government? So NDC and John Mahama cannot be taken seriously based on their negative records,” he said.
He averred that chances were that a future NDC government will take the route of increasing the rate of the levy. “They will come and increase the E-Levy rate from 1.5 percent to 2 percent and more if we don’t take care and mistakenly give them power,” he added.
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According to the MP, the benefits of the levy has started manifesting very early n: “It has even caused the debt to GDP rate to reduce by some margins; a positive omen for the country which is also helping to boost investor confidence.”
After government passed the E-Levy in late March and had it duly assented to by President Akufo-Addo, the Ghana Revenue Authority rolled out implementation starting May 1.
Speaking at a public lecture days later, John Dramani Mahama promised that the next NDC government was going to abolish the levy.
“A new National Democratic Congress government, God willing, and with the votes of the sovereign people of Ghana in 2025, will repeal the E-levy Act," Mahama said.
The NPP has dismissed the promise calling it a scam.
