E-Levy: Government does not intend securitizing – Deputy finance minister

A Deputy Minister for Finance, Dr. John Kumah has negated claims that the government intends to securitize the yet to be implemented Electronic levy popularly known as E-levy for additional loans.

According to the Minister, no such decision has been taken by the government.

As far as I am aware no such decision has been taken for securitization of the E-levy which is expected to be implemented by the Ghana Revenue Authority and the Electronic Money Issuers (EMI) on May 1, 2022.

Let me say on authority that such has been taken by the Ministry and there has not been a meeting held to consider such a decision, the Deputy Minister who is also a Member of Parliament for Ejisu Constituency in the Ashanti Region explained.

He was categorical in saying that the revenue accrued from E-levy will be channelled into the establishment of the You Start programme to create someone million jobs for the youth in three years’ time

The second priority area of the E-levy is ensuring prompt payment to contractors to boost the infrastructure development needs of the country.

It is the calculation from E-levy that made the government abandon the collection of road tolls across adding that it gave the government a paltry sum, he held.

Thirdly, he mentioned as servicing of Ghana’s debt to the Gross Domestic Product portfolio.

There is the need for us as a country to start servicing our debt and stop depending on loans, he said.

The Deputy Minister made this denial speaking on Accra-based Citi FM’s evening news analysis programme on Friday, April 29, 2022.