A former Minister of Finance in late President John Evans Atta Mills’ government is advocating the taxing the extractive industry, rather than the electronic transactions to which many are opposed to.
Dr. Kwabena Duffour who is also a former Governor of the Bank of Ghana, argued that taxing electronic transactions termed “E-levy”, is inconsistent with government’s digitalisation agenda.
Moreover, exercising that will be counterproductive to the Ghanaian, who is already financially burdened, owing to the economic hardship confronting the nation as a whole for which reason, Government urges the youth to veer into entrepreneurship.
A post on the official Twitter page of Dr. Duffour read: “For a government that wants to leverage on digitalization the e-levy contradicts the facilitation of a digital economy and worsens financial conditions for already struggling Ghanaians.”
” Focusing on the extractive industry yields more revenue without the burden the e-levy creates, he added.”
Having said that, he gave an estimation of revenue likely to be generated from e-levy annually as compared to the extractive industry which includes the oil and mining sectors.
According to him, some GH₵6.9 billion would be accrued from taxing electronic transactions such as mobile money, bank transfers, merchant payments and inward remittances whereas when taxed, the oil and mining sectors can generate up to GH₵25 billion.
Thus, if government should revert its decision and choose the alternative as indicated, the state is going to make some extra GH₵18.1 billion which would not have a negative impact on the economic lives of Ghanaians.
Meanwhile, government seems to be bent on implementing the said levy, though the burden of the Ghanaian has been reduced by some 0.25% on the intended 1.75% levy by the intervention of the telecommunication companies,who have agreed to absorb the amount.
“We [government and telcos] were able to come down by 0.25 per cent which means that the impact will go down for the average Ghanaian,” the Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori Atta said while speaking at the Annual New Year School held at the university of Ghana on Wednesday, January 26, 2022.
As it stands now however, transfers less than GH₵100 have been exempted from the taxation, Ken Ofori Atta indicated.
