The Member of Parliament Sissala East who doubles as the Deputy Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Amidu Chinnia Issahaku has explained that government proposed the Electronic Transaction Levy in their attempt to address the huge Tax to GDP deficit. The levy is also government’s attempt to raise revenue from the growing electronic business space across the country.
Mr. Amidu Chinnia explained that some businesses had completely transformed and moved from physical spaces, this means that such businesses could avoid taxation but should the E-levy come into force, all such businesses would be captured under the tax bracket. This would mean, increased revenue for the development of the country.
“The direct purchases we used to do that were taxed through VAT and other sources of taxation are on the decrease. Now many people are doing transactions through the internet and other systems which are electronic, and so if you want to raise taxes so that you can develop your taxes, you have to evolve to the new developments that are happening. Currently, electronic payments and electronic purchases are higher”.
“If you look at our tax to GDP ratio, it is just 12.2 percent of our GDP. Whereas many of our neighbours in the African sub-region, even if you consider Burkina Faso that is struggling, their tax to GDP ratio is higher than 12.2 percent. South Africa is doing more than 25 percent tax to GDP. The more taxes that you can raise, the more you are able to facilitate development in terms of roads, employment, and all other current kinds of employment,” he said.
He said these when he spoke to Samuel Mbura on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East.
He said the expected 18 million Ghanaians out of the 30.8 million who should be paying taxes, only a little above 2 percent pay taxes. Thus, the E-levy is a proven way of capturing a greater portion of the population under the tax net.
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The Deputy Minister explained that government had considered the low-income Ghanaians and as such placed a threshold of ghc100 to protect such customers.
He admitted that more needs to be done to plug the revenue leakages but insisted that the E-levy is essential to Ghana’s Development.
He commended the Ministry of Finance’s directive to cut down on expenditure by 20 percent in order to control spending within government agencies. He said this a suggestion that government indeed listens to the cries of the people.
A1Radioonline.com|101.1MHZ|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Bolgatanga|
