Kwame Jantuah, the Chief Executive Officer of African Energy Consortium Limited, has stated that the proposed E-levy should have been subjected to a wider consultation before being included in the 2022 budget statement.
According to him, the Finance Ministry should have sought input from civil society organizations and other stakeholders on the policy to ensure that it was acceptable to everybody.
“Whether they put an e-levy on it or not, government wins,” he remarked on TV3/3FM’s Key Points on Saturday, December 11 with host Dzifa Bampoh.
“So they impose a fee on MoMo, and Ghanaians decide not to participate.” They could do one of two things: keep their money under their beds or go back to the banks. Who borrows from the banks if they go back to the banks? Who do the banks want to lend money to, and who are they most likely to do so?
“Do you think it’s the private sector or the government?” It’s all about the government. So, if people return their money to the banks, the government goes to the banks and borrows money from them because the banks know they will be paid, and what does this mean for the private sector as a source of growth? It falls because the same banks refuse to lend money to the private sector. So, in the end, the government triumphs.
“However, I believe that if this is the case, they should have consulted with us before starting to think about the e-levy.”
On the same episode, Bongo Member of Parliament Edward Bawa indicated that negotiations on the introduction of the e-levy had broken down.
He stated, “Negotiations have crumbled.”
He also questioned the Akufo-Addo administration’s plan to increase taxes, despite the fact that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had previously attacked the Mahama administration for taking similar steps.
Mr Bawa said Ghanaians believed the Akufo-Addo administration would not burden the people, referring to a piece published by the pro-NPP Statesman newspaper criticizing Mr Mahama’s adoption of taxes.
However, Dr. Kabiru Mahama, an Economic Policy Analyst at the Vice President’s Office, disagreed with his assertion that negotiations had collapsed.
“Negotiations haven’t crumbled from the government’s perspective,” he remarked on the same show.
He also noted that the Minority’s position on the e-levy is not the government’s position.
“It is regrettable to report that consultations have come to a halt,” he remarked.
At a press conference earlier this week, Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta stated that consultations on the idea were still ongoing.
“On the E-levy, given its substantial fiscal repercussions, we will continue our negotiations with the Minority Caucus in Parliament and other key stakeholders, with the goal of reaching consensus and returning to the House as soon as possible,” he said.
“We are committed to increasing domestic revenue mobilization,” he said. “The presence of our proposal on the E-Levy is to broaden the tax net and generate the necessary revenue to support entrepreneurship, youth employment, infrastructure development, particularly road construction, and debt reduction.”
“Let me emphasize that the E-levy offers our best chance in the medium term to broaden the tax base and match the 20 percent tax-to-GDP ratio that our counterparts have.”
Meanwhile, the e-levy was not mentioned in the House on Friday, December 10, therefore it was not included in the business statement for next week.
