A former Presidential Candidate of the People’s National Convention (PNC) Dr. Edward Mahama has opined that the government's new tax measure i.e. the E-Levy is a better revenue mobilization measure than going to the IMF.
Dr. Edward Mahama who was appointed Ambassador-at-Large by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in his first term made this statement when he spoke in an interview on TV3.
He said, "If we solve our problems, I am for that than to go to IMF.”
“I have hope in Ghana and if Ghana does well, we will all be good,” he added.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has on numerous occasions reiterated that the country will not go to the International Monetary fund for support.
Speaking during a press briefing on May 12, 2022, he noted that IMF even knows that Ghana is completely in the right direction looking at the policies that the country is currently embarking on to solve its problems.
“All the white folks are just interested in us coming into the IMF program. I always wonder why.”
“We are members of the fund; there are two major points of interventions that we have from the fund. One is the advice that we get because of the phenomenal expertise that the fund has and then secondly, these program interventions bring us some resources."
“I think, if you see from the budget that we constructed for 2022 and the subsequent announcement that we have done, clearly, the issue of Ghana having the capacity to think through the consolidation exercise exists. Also discipline itself with regards to the 20 percent, etc, that we have shown clearly.”
He indicated that “We have committed to not going back to the fund because, in terms of the interventions and policy we are right there, the fund knows that we are completely in the right direction. The issue is, validating the programs that we have put in place and then, in my view, supporting us to find alternative ways of financing or re-financing our debt, reprofiling it.”
Edward Mahama is a former Presidential candidate of the PNC