According to President of the Pentecostal and Charismatic Prof. Paul Frimpong-Manso, Ghana’s government must prioritize combatting corruption in order to prevent waste in the system.
According to him, Ghana loses a significant amount of money due to corruption, and the problem must be addressed immediately in order to create cash for national development.
Each year, the Auditor General issues findings on waste of resources and public expenditures, according to Rev Frimpong Manso.
He believes the perpetrators should be held accountable and punished.
“Whether it’s the E-levy or not, it’s corruption because what the E-levy will bring will be less than what goes down the drain in the public accounts, report, and Auditor General’s report, and we see these folks parading about with their chests out.” So it’s up to us whether we bring it or not.
“Whether we have an E-levy or not, we will end up in the same place unless we address corruption and penalize wrongdoing.”
In his budget statement, the Finance Minister announced a new levy on all electronic transactions that will be imposed 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.
“Following extensive debate, the government has decided to impose a fee on all electronic transactions in order to expand the tax net and bring the informal sector into the fold.” “The ‘Electronic Transaction Levy, or E-Levy,’ shall be known.”
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.
According to a Bank of Ghana research, the value of digital transactions in Ghana increased by over 120 percent between February 2020 and February 2021, compared to 44 percent between February 2019 and February 2020, owing to the convenience they provide.
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.
Minority The E-levy, according to Haruna Iddrisu, is a deterrent to the expansion 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 are a minority.
