You don’t need town hall meetings to make a decision on E-levy – Government told

Editor of the Ghanaian Publisher Newspaper, Yaw Obeng Manu, says the government does not need to embark on consultative campaigns for the passage of any policy, especially the E-levy.

According to him, any government that wants to introduce any policy for the good of its people can simply go ahead without consulting anyone.

The government on Thursday, January 27, 2022, began its series of town hall meetings on the controversial Electronic Transactions Levy (E-levy).

The exercise forms part of engagements the government has planned with the aim of explaining the importance of the e-levy as well as take feedback and inputs from relevant stakeholders on the levy.

The government also says the feedback will inform it on the implementation of the levy.

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 platform transactions.

A charge of 1.75% will apply to electronic transactions that are more than GH¢100 on a daily basis.

“I have my issues with the town hall meetings as I think they are not needed. If the gov’t wants to introduce a policy and they think it’ll better the lives of its people, I think they should just go ahead with it. If the minority will not support it then that’s fine because you only need a simple majority to pass the e-levy into law,” he stated.

He urged the ruling government to concentrate its effort on getting its Members of Parliament (MPs) to vote for the passage of the e-levy “rather than consulting anyone else.”

Yaw Obeng Manu in the Editors’ Take Edition of the Happy Morning Show with Samuel Eshun took Ghanaians down memory lane.

“When the late President Jerry John Rawlings wanted to introduce VAT and it was rejected initially he never came back to consult anyone. The rate was rather revised and brought back.

"At the time J.H Mensah and others from the opposition were against VAT but when they were in power they increased the rate rather than remove VAT. The same thing happened with the Communication Service Tax.”

Yaw Obeng Manu chastised Ghanaians for asking the wrong questions and advised them to show interest in what the e-levy will be used for.