Financial Analyst, Joe Jackson has stated that the supposed concessions that have been arrived at by the Finance Minister after the approval of the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy are nothing to write home about. He said that the concessions as presented by the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta do not provide any relief to the ordinary Ghanaian. He said the adjustments arrived at with regard to the Agyapa deal and Aker deal do not necessarily impact the pockets of the people.
He explained that government’s position on the ‘elephant in the room’; the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-levy) is still unclear as the Finance Minister stated that negotiations and consultations are still ongoing to decide on which level to peg the levy. The current position is in direct contravention with earlier suggestions made by Deputy Majority Leader Alexander Afenyo Markin that the e-levy had been reduced from 1.75 to 1.5 percent.
He said these when he spoke to Samuel Mbura on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East. “As it stands now, the e-levy is coming on and it is coming on at 1.75 percent with a minimum threshold of 100GHC. The person who is sending us the money is the person who will pay the e-levy. That is the only thing we can say for sure now,” Mr. Jackson explained.
The Financial Analyst said while the e-levy is an uncomfortable situation for the Ghanaians, the current economic situation of the country does not give much space for the operators of the economy to provide reliefs. He explained that while it may not be palatable, the government needs to raise more revenues as what it raises is not enough.
Mr. Jackson explained that Ghana currently spends about 50 percent of revenue raised to service loans, a situation that puts the country in dire straits.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1 MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
