E-Levy: Government must demonstrate readiness to address revenue loopholes – Economist

E-Levy Bill withdrawn from Parliament

E-Levy rate reduced from 1.75% 1.5%

Minority, citizens oppose E-Levy

An economist, Dr. Patrick Opoku Asuming has urged to government to signal its readiness to addressing issues with regard to sealing revenue leakages in the tax system.

He opines that if government wants citizens to accept the proposed Electronic Transactions Levy, it must first demonstrate willingness to ensure the Bill will be used for its intended purpose.

In an interaction with Citi Business News, Dr. Asuming who is also a senior lecturer at the University of Ghana Business School said government must lead by example in dealing with the revenue loopholes.

“At least the government can signal that it’s very serious about this. Because we are in a serious problem and the government is rightly asking Ghanaians to make more sacrifices to help us get out of the situation we are in. I think that the government should lead by example by at least cutting down on some of the perks we give to our political leaders. It may not bring much by way of revenue but at least it signals to the populations that they are willing to give up something and therefore we should be able to give up something,” he is quoted by Citi Business News.

“But at the moment we are paying a lot of taxes already and you are now asking them to pay more for conducting electronic transactions. The people are meanwhile questioning what has happened to all the taxes we’ve been paying seeing that there is so much waste in the system. So, the government should also signal its seriousness with dealing with the leakages while showing that in these difficult times they are willing to give up some of the perks they enjoy to help the situation,” he added.

Meanwhile, despite stiff opposition of the E-Levy, government insists the tax measure is necessary to fill revenue gaps.

The E-Levy if approved seeks to impose 1.75 percent charge on all electronic transactions covering mobile money payments, bank transfers, inward remittances among others.