Director of Business Operations at Dalex Finance, Joe Jackson has called on government to lift the veil of mystery surrounding the Electronic transactions levy(E-Levy). He made this call in an interview on A1 Radio’s Daybreak Upper East show on Tuesday, December 7, 2021.
According to him, although he appreciates the importance of introducing the E-Levy as one of the avenues of raising more revenues that will propel development, aspects of the policy in its current state which has caused mayhem in Parliament will have a devastating effect on businesses in the country.
He said the fact that a sizable amount of the country’s revenue is channelled to payment of salaries and interests of debts means government has to widen the tax net which includes the introduction of the E-Levy.
He, therefore, demanded that both Majority and Minority leadership in Parliament to bring clarity to the matter.
“Ghana is broke and the need to raise revenue is dire. If you look at last year and this year from January to September, the interest payment on our debts alone was 60% of the revenue we collected. 55% of all the revenue we collected went into salaries. When you take interest payment and you add it to salary, already all the monies that we collected from taxes have been exhausted. So, we are in a dire strait and that has driven through Finance Minister to put on the E-Levy even though the E-Levy has major challenges to the way it has been structured”. Unfortunately, nothing much has changed”, said Mr. Jackson.
Deputy Majority Leader Alexander Afenyo Markin last week indicated that government had listened to concerns raised by the minority and had resolved to reduce it from 1.75% to 1.5%.
The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu speaking at the launch of the 10th anniversary of the chamber of Telecommunications on Thursday, December 2, 2021, said his caucus was ready to accept the policy if it was reduced from 1.75% to 1.%.
But Minority Chief Whip, Alhaji Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak in a statement said the minority’s position remains a ‘no to E-Levy’.
Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta on Monday, December 6,2021 indicated that there has not been a reduction to the levy as claimed by the majority that it has been reduced from 1.75% to 1.5%.
This, Mr. Jackson wants Parliament to try as much as possible allow cool heads to prevail and bring clarity on the matter.
Source/www.a1radioonline.com/101.1mHz/Elijah Beyeni Yenibey/Ghana
