A deputy minister of finance, Dr. John Kumah, has stated that despite the harsh resistance of the E-Levy by Ghanaians, revenue from the tax system has started picking up.
According to John Kumah, the E-Levy is an influential tax handle that will be widely accepted in the near future.
“Well, let me say that I am still very happy that Ghana managed to pass the e-levy. It’s going to be a very influential tax handle for our country going into the future. Because whether you like it or not the normal economy as we know it is shifting into digitalization, and obviously in the future things will normalize,” he is quoted by Myoyonline.
“I mean we saw the huge resistance to the e-levy and its impact in its implementation, but if you observe the data from June, a month after it started picking up by 8%, the following month it’s going up by 10% and gradually people will come home to accept it and I believe we will see the impact,” he added.
The electronic transaction levy before its implementation was projected to rake in some GH¢600million in revenue. But after the implementation in May, the government has received only 9% of the projected value.
Dr. Kumah attributed the low revenue to the challenges that have characterized the implementation of the tax but he’s highly optimistic that going forward, it will yield the expected results.
“Obviously, there are a number of challenges and you know we did not also implement in full, we had to do stages of implementation before finally…even now as we speak it’s not all the stakeholders who are on the common platform, and even it’s not all the transactions that are supposed to go through the common API that is currently going through.
“So, we still have challenges in the first year of implementation. But as I said, I am very happy that we have that tax handle which in time when we are able to improve and make the necessary reviews and changes, we will see the impact,” he is reported to have said.
John Kumah, Deputy Minister of Finance