Government to impose 1.75% rate for E-Levy
Government must build trust among citizens for support, Dr Kofi Amoah
Business mogul, Dr Kofi Amoah has questioned the government’s decision to finance its YouStart entrepreneurial initiative with funds from the yet to be implemented E-Levy when it had earlier stated that the project would be financed with the help of some banks.
The business mogul reckons that such a turn-around from politicians does not build trust among citizens.
This week, the Finance Minister revealed that the passage of the E-levy was critical and "intrinsically linked with the YouStart initiative. We consider the E-Levy as an essential tool to increase our tax to GDP from 13% to 16% and above."
Reacting on Twitter on Friday, Dr Amoah said "when will the government resolve towards building trust among citizens in order to help garner support for its development initiatives".
He adds, "The YouStart Programme finance was from some banks, etc. but no taxes were mentioned”
“Now it’s E-Levy and did the banks turn government down? Is the programme not well-planned and bankable,”? Dr Kofi Amoah questioned via Twitter.
He opines that although the government has set its intention on these programmes, there still remains a lack of trust among citizens to support initiatives.
The YouStart programme according to the government is one of the solutions to the alarming rate of unemployment in the country. The initiative is to encourage the youth to start their own businesses with the help of some banks in the country provided the entrepreneurial idea is scalable.
Meanwhile, the Government of Ghana has reiterated the need for the introduction of the E-Levy on numerous occasions since its announcement in the 2022 budget statement.
Although a decision to approve the E-Levy is yet to materialize in Parliament, the finance minister [Ken Ofori-Atta] has said revenue from the tax measure will go towards building more roads, creating jobs and opportunities for the youth and reduce the country’s dependence on debt assistance and also finance the YouStart programme.
But the Minority in Parliament has vowed to kick against approving the E-Levy citing it will place more hardship on the ordinary citizen. Also, a cross-section of the public have bemoaned the introduction of the tax measure.
The E-levy is a new tax measure introduced by the government in the 2022 Budget on basic transactions related to digital payments and electronic transactions aimed at widening the tax net and increasing revenue.
The measure, if approved, would place a charge of 1.75 percent on all electronic transactions that are more than GH¢100 daily (24 hours).
This will cover mobile money payments, ATM withdrawals, inward remittances among others.
Dr Kofi Amoah is a business mogul and philantropist