The opposition MPs are pursuing every legal option possible to reject the 2022 budget declaration, according to Johnson Asiedu Nketia, General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
He restated the Minority’s position on the budget, saying that the policy paper is bad for Ghanaians and should be rejected.
I will commend our MPs that so far they have stood on the side of Ghanaians and have exercise d that power fully.
“In reality, if I had known that infiltrating and voting was permitted, I would have descended from the public gallery to make the number 138.” As a result, they (NDC MPs) have played their part.
“Now there is confusion as to whether the budget has been accepted or rejected; we are still battling that, and they are using every legal technique to ensure that the budget’s principals are rejected,” he stated at an NDC public debate on the 2022 budget on Wednesday.
Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta proposed a new levy on all electronic transactions that would be paid by the government in 2022 to broaden the tax net and bring in the informal sector.
“It is becoming evident that there is significant potential to boost tax revenues by bringing into the tax bracket transactions that are best characterised as being performed in the ‘informal economy,'” Mr Ofori-Atta said in Parliament on Wednesday, November 17 when presenting the 2022 budget statement.
“After considerable deliberations, government has decided to place a levy on all electronic transactions to widen the tax net and rope in the informal sector. This shall be known as the ‘Electronic Transaction Levy or E-Levy’.”
According to him, the new E-levy will be a 1.75 percent fee on all electronic transactions, including mobile money payments, bank transfers, merchant payments, and inward remittances, which will be charged by the sender except for inward remittances, which would be borne by the receiver.
This, however, will not effect transactions totaling less than GH100 per day.
“A percentage of the E-Levy earnings will be utilized to assist, among other things, entrepreneurship, youth employment, cyber security, digital and road infrastructure.”
This new levy will go into effect on January 1, 2022.
Total transaction value is expected to exceed GH500 million by 2020, with mobile money customers and users increasing by 16 percent in 2019.
Due to the convenience they provide, Ghana saw a 120 percent growth in the value of digital transactions between February 2020 and February 2021, compared to 44 percent between February 2019 and February 2020, according to a Bank of Ghana report.
This was exacerbated by the arrival of Covid-19, particularly during the lockdown.
However, the plan has been faced with opposition from the Parliamentary Minority.
The E-levy, according to their leader, Haruna Iddrisu, is a deterrent to the growth of the digital economy. As a result, he stated, the Minority will oppose it.
“Mr Speaker, obviously, we see that the Minister of Finance aims to introduce several measures, including the now commonly declared e-levy or digital levy as some have properly dubbed it,” he stated during a post-budget workshop in Ho on Saturday November 20.
“Mr. Speaker, our issue is whether the e-levy is and will be a deterrent to the expansion of our country’s digital economy. We believe that the e-levy may act as a deterrent to investment and private sector development in our country. We, the minority, may not be able to or will not support the government’s decision to implement that particular e-levy. We haven’t been able to reach a national consensus on that issue.”
Meanwhile, at a news conference on Monday, December 6, Mr Ofori Atta stated that conversations on the plan were still ongoing in order to establish a consensus.
“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 feasible,” he said.
