You mismanaged the economy but fear to go to IMF so you introduce E-levy – Kofi Bentil exposes government
Kofi Bentil, Vice President of Imani Africa, has urged the government to be transparent in its support for the E-levy proposal in the budget statement.
He feels that the government’s support for the E-levy implies that the economy has been mismanaged and that without it, we will tumble into the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Mr. Bentil who is also a private legal practitioner, in a Facebook post regarding the policy proposal, said “The govt communication in support of e-levy seems to suggest that the economy has been mismanaged, and without e-levy we will crash into IMF! Not so? Please clarify.
“Instead of using 10m to study the obvious problem at Keta, why don’t you just use it to start solving the problem.
“Anyway how much land are we losing and how much will it cost to purchase that size of land ??? Note that we’ve spent over $50 million on this issue with little result. We could have purchased new land with that.
“There is no good reason to use 241m to monitor e-levy you might as well use that to support the budget and scrap the e-Levy.
“I insist that e-levy doesn’t need any special monitoring !! If needed then GRA can do it. It’s already in a very well structured and formalized system.
“This approach of making every problem an opportunity for cronyism should stop.
“And please let me hear you on how to cut waste and profligacy before you ask me to pay more tax. According to Prof. Bopkin Exemptions alone can make us gain 1 Billion. Stop the waste!” he concluded.
It will be recalled that Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta proposed a new levy on all electronic transactions in 2022 in a bid to broaden the tax net and bring in the informal sector.
Mr Ofori-Atta observed on Wednesday, November 17 as he presented the 2022 budget statement in Parliament that “It is becoming clear there exists enormous potential to increase tax revenues by bringing into the tax bracket, transactions that could be best defined as being undertaken in the ‘informal economy”
He added that “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 levy will be a 1.75 per cent 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.
“A portion of the proceeds from the E-Levy will be used to support entrepreneurship, youth employment, cyber security, digital and road infrastructure among others”, the Finance Minister stated.
This new levy is scheduled to start Saturday, January 1, 2022, and it will not affect transactions totalling less than GHS100 per day.
Source: Richard Mensah Adonu | Join our Telegram Group
