The Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central Isaac Adongo has rubbished claims by the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta that the Electronic Transaction Levy (e-levy) will provide the needed funding to help the government address the unemployment needs of the country. Government in the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy suggested the YouStart programme which intends to create over a million jobs for the youth.
He said that the e-levy is a scam and is an opportunity for the government to deceive Ghanaians. He encouraged the government to rather consider cutting wasteful expenditure and channel those funds to addressing issues relating to youth unemployment.
In a Facebook post, Mr. Adongo said the math as suggested by the Finance Minister Ken Ofori does not add up.
“This is a scam. You said you will create 1 million jobs through ‘YouStart’ over a 3 year period in your own budget and allocated Ghc1 billion for it in the 2022 budget. It turned out that you are spending only about Ghc420 million from taxes to fund this YouStart scam whilst hoping that donors will give you about Ghc580million to fund it. So clearly, even for your so-called job creation module, you are not using e-levy for it. Instead, you are creating an avenue to spend Ghc240 million e-levy on a faceless company,” he wrote.
He asked whether government’s move to increase expenditure by over 67 billion Ghana-cedis was financial prudent suggesting that saving just 7 billion Ghana-cedis from the ‘wasteful’ expenditure would mean government would not need to collect the e-levy.
“How can you program to tax Ghanaians by Ghc 30 billion more in one year but increase your expenditures by over Ghc67 billion more in just one year but spend only a paltry Ghc420 million to deal with youth unemployment? Cut the wasteful expenditure by just Ghc7 billion and you won’t need E-levy. Apart from compensation and interest payment, you are increasing your other discretionary and recurrent expenditure by over Ghc16 billion. What exactly are you spending this money on? Cut this humongous consumption and ostentatious spending by just 50% and you won’t need E-levy. Stop The deception and scrap the e-levy,” he wrote.
Background
The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, has said proceeds from the 1.75% E-Levy, proposed in the 2022 budget, would ensure that over 11 million people are employed.
The government has said among other things that proceeds from the levy will support young entrepreneurs in the country as a way of tackling unemployment.
The Minister made the latest comment while addressing thousands of young people, at a Springboard Youth Dialogue at the University of Cape Coast.
He noted that 58 percent of the country’s population are between 15 and 59 years, which is about 18million people.
It was held on the theme: “Building a Sustainable Entrepreneurial Nation; Opportunities for Ghana’s Youth”.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1 MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
