Oneness needed in E-levy discussions - Peter Amewu

Member of Parliament for Hohoe constituency, John Peter Amewu, has called for unity in discussions on the Electronic Levy (E-Levy).

He said discussions on the levy should be focused on the rapid socio-economic development of the country and not along political party lines.

Mr Amewu, who is also the Minister for Railway Development, said this during the Government’s Town Hall Meeting on the economy and the E-Levy in Ho.

“E-levy should not bring confusion and hatred among the citizens. Politics is all about development and development can only materialise with the payment of taxes in the country,” he said.

The MP said there was no single alternative to domestic revenue mobilisation anywhere in the world and so the best form was to internally mobilise revenue for infrastructural developmental.

"Everyone should endeavour to understand the issues concerning the policy because not everyone in Ghana currently pays tax, especially the informal sector of the economy," he added, saying it was the government's intention to ensure that the players in the informal sector also contributed to payment of tax for development.

The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, called on the Clergy and Traditional Authorities in the Volta Region to help educate their followers and the youth about the policy.

Mr Pius Hadzide, the Chief Executive Officer of the National Youth Authority, said young people in the country needed support to expand their creativity into entrepreneurship, hence the need for the government to generate revenue to support them.

"How do we support the youth to develop, provide infrastructural development among others if the people are refusing to pay taxes to generate the needed revenue," he asked.

Dr Archibald Yao Letsa, the Volta Regional Minister, said instead of going to borrow to sustain the economy, “we need to have burden sharing, which should involve everybody.”

Some participants expressed concerns about hardships in the country and said it was important for everyone, including politicians, to sacrifice to revive the economy