Implementation of E-Levy will be chaotic – Sam George

MP says Parliament has not approved measures to implement levy

E-Levy will require a system that can resolve many queries in milliseconds

E-Levy will be implemented by the beginning of May 2022 – Ofori-Atta

Ningo-Prampram MP Sam Nartey George has indicated that the government has not adequately put in measures to implement the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy) by the May 2022 deadline set by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta.

Sam George, a member of the Communications Committee of Parliament, said that the implementation of the levy, which will happen if only the Supreme Court throws out a suit to overturn its passage by the minority caucus, will be chaotic.

The MP (Member of Parliament), who made these remarks in a Citi TV interview monitored by GhanaWeb, hinted that implementing the levy would be chaotic because it requires a system that can resolve many queries within micro milliseconds.

"This is going to be chaos in the space… the system will run in search a way that the APR's will run algorithms and when I try to send money from myself to Habib, because there are exemptions in the Law, in milliseconds, it is supposed to run a number of queries.

"It is supposed to query is Sam George sending money to another account owned by Sam George, if yes, don't charge, if no charge; then it will run another query is the amount more than 100 cedis or below, if it is less don't charge if it is above charge, all of these in micro milliseconds," he said.

Sam Geroge added that the government has not even presented its measures to implement the levy to Parliament, which implies that the house might not be able to approve them before it rises on April 5, 2022.

"Parliament is rising on Tuesday; they say they are implementing on the May 1, there is no time in between. We are coming back after seven weeks," he said.

However, speaking to journalists after President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo's State of the Nation Address in Parliament on Wednesday, Ken Ofori-Atta stated that the E-Levy would come into effect from May this year.

Ofori-Atta said the state institutions charged with collecting the levy had given the assurance of their readiness to implement the policy.

"We had some meetings with Controller and Accountant Generals Department (CAGD) and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), and they have said right at the beginning of May they should be able to put their system together", he said.