Minister for Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, has made a passionate appeal to Ghanaians not to fear the E-Levy assuring its proceeds would ensure good infrastructure for the country.
Speaking at a town hall meeting held in Tamale, the finance minister said, “Payment of the E-Levy will be your contribution to the state, who has a lot for you.”
The town hall meeting organised in Tamale is the third in the series by the government formed part of avenues being used to consult the citizenry and explain the need for them to support the E-Levy, which was introduced in the 2022 national budget.
In the budget, the government projected to raise 6.9 billion Ghana Cedis through the E-Levy
Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Minister for Information assured especially mobile money vendors that just like the communication service tax, which did not stop people from making phone calls, the E-Levy would not collapse the mobile money business.
Some participants at the government’s town hall meeting on the economy said they were not convinced by the arguments advanced by the Ministers of State for the introduction of the Electronic Transactions Levy (E-Levy).
They were of the view that the E-Levy would rather be biting and deplete hard-earned money in their pockets.
However, Mr Alhassan Seidu, a mobile money vendor, who spoke to the Ghana News Agency after the town hall meeting, said Mr Ofori-Atta could not, “assure us that the E-Levy will not collapse our business. ”
Mr Seidu said this would affect mobile money transactions thereby, collapsing jobs and further exacerbating the unemployment situation in the country.
Madam Mariam Braimah, a trader said the suggestion that market women should register with the Ghana Revenue Authority to collect merchant lines for payment purposes to avoid the E-Levy would be cumbersome as most of them did not register their businesses.
Source: GNA
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