E-levy is a sacrifice Ghanaians must make for national development – Kan Dapaah

National Security Minister, Albert Kan Dapaah has called on Ghanaians to accept the unpopular electronic levy.

According to him, the novel tax will be a panacea to Ghana’s developmental needs.

Speaking at a meeting with staff of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Mr Kan-Dpaah who is a chartered accountant by profession, noted that accepting the E-levy will be one of the sacrifices Ghanaians can make to ensure the government is able to revive the economy and also provide the much-needed public goods and services.

“The extent to which the government can tackle the socio economic problems of the country very much depends on the revenues at its disposal.

“Here in Ghana, the E-levy idea continues to divide opinions yet, these are but a few of the sacrifices that the citizenry must, in my opinion, be ready to make to support the government’s activity towards reviving the economy and providing much-needed public goods and public services,” he said.

In his 2022 Financial Statement and Budget, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta announced a new levy to be charged by government in 2022 on all electronic transactions to widen the tax net and rope in the informal sector.

“It is becoming clear there exists enormous potential to increase tax revenues by bringing into the tax bracket, transactions that could be best defined as being undertaken in the ‘informal economy’,” Mr Ofori-Atta said.

He explained that the new E-levy will be a 1.75 per cent charge on all electronic transactions covering mobile money payments, bank transfers, merchant payments and inward remittances to be borne by the sender except inward remittances, which will be borne by the recipient.

Source: Pulse Ghana