The National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress, Sammy Gyamfi, has described government’s proposed e-levy as an “illegality worse than rape”.
According to him, the 1.75% levy on digital transactions is nothing more than a grand theft.
In his view e-levy is a theft because there are laws that allow some things to be taxed and those that can’t be taxed, and in Ghana’s tax regime, there are income taxes, personal income taxes for those operating their own businesses, and VAT when one buys a taxable good.
The Communications Director made these remarks on Angel FM’s Anopa Bofoɔ Breakfast Show hosted by Kofi Adoma Nwanwani on Wednesday, February 2.
Describing the levy an “illegality worse than rape”, Sammy Gyamfi added that I have on several occasions declared that “e-levy is not a tax, it is theft”.
Citing reasons why Ghanaians must reject the levy, he intimated that “our opposition to the e-levy has got nothing to do with percentages and so even if they reduce it to 0.00001% koraa, we shall still not accept it”.
He believes that the controversial levy will lead to many cases of multiple taxation, a situation he described as ‘tax on tax’.
He further indicated that God has chosen the gallant 137 Members of Parliament to fight for the good people of Ghana and they will not allow the NPP to pass this illegality called e-levy.
The NDC communicator said that the NPP would not be able to use the court to injunct Casiel Ato Forson, who is in court for causing financial loss to the state, in order to have their way in parliament in terms of numbers to pass the proposed 1.75% digital transaction tax.
“They would not be able to injunct that MP. We will resist it with all our might, it will not happen today, it will not happen tomorrow”.
The NPP are enjoying life and thus cannot identify with the hardships of Ghanaians and that is why John Kumah is talking anyhow.
If even they succeed and pass it, what if Ghanaians decide to boycott it as happened in the case of Uganda where the 1% e-levy was boycotted by people shunning the use of mobile money transactions, Mr. Gyamfi quizzed.
He intimated that the levy is a punishment induced by the abysmal performance of the NPP government and therefore, advised them to listen to Mark Assibey Yeboah, whom he claims is calling for an IMF bail out.
He opined that Ghana doesn’t have an economy anymore because it has collapsed. To buttress his argument, he cited the downgrading of Ghana’s economic outlook to a B minus by Fitch and explained that even under HIPC, Ghana’s ranking was far better at B positive.
Sammy Gyamfi concluded that Ghanaians will force government to drop the e-levy just as they forced parliament to ‘drop that chamber’, the Agyapa Royalties deal, and caused government to reverse the bench mark values, all of which were not in their favour.
