Ghanaian actress Lydia Forson has raised some concerns over the controversial electronic levy (E-levy) that the Government of President Nana Akufo-Addo is pushing hard to introduce in Ghana.
In her social media post sighted by African Entertainment, Ms. Forson asked: “If Elevy is to ensure the majority of Ghanaians who don’t pay tax contribute their quota; what happens to the Ghanaian who already pays taxes?”
She asked again: “if transactions below a certain amount don’t incur these charges, doesn’t it defeat the entire purpose of the ELevy?”
The President Akufo-Addo government is seeking to introduce the E-levy.
It would be recalled that on 17th November 2021, the Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta announced during the presentation of the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Government to the Parliament of Ghana, announced the introduction of an “Electronic Transaction Levy” or “E-Levy” of 1.75 percent on electronic transactions above GHs 100 (US$16) per day. The e-levy was to take effect from 1st February 2022.
Government had said the levy will be applied to mobile money payments, bank transfers, merchant payments, and inward remittances (MoF 2022 Budget Highlights), indicating that charges will be borne by the sender except in the case of inward remittances where the charge will be borne by the recipient.
The Finance Minister had explained that the country’s total digital transactions for 2020 were estimated to be over GH¢500 billion (about US$81 billion) compared to GH¢78 billion (US$12.5 billion) in 2016. As a result, Government is projecting to rake in tax revenue of about GH¢6.96 billion (US$1.1 billion) in 2022, and about GH¢26.90 billion (US$4.5 billion) from 2023 to 2025 after the implementation of the electronic transaction levy to help widen the tax net and rope in the informal sector (PwC 2022 Budget Digest).
But the opposition NDC and a section of Ghanaians have opposed the E-levy, saying its introduction will cause further hardships in Ghana.
Other celebrities including Sarkodie have previously registered their opposition to the introduction of the E-levy.