E-levy bill is technically incompetent – Haruna Iddrisu
Mr James Klutse Avedzi, the Deputy Minority Leader has advised Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta to devise new means of increasing the country’s revenue instead of the electronic transaction levy.
The lawmaker sees it as a lazy approach to taxation since there are many income earners that are yet to be captured in the tax net.
Legislator for Ketu North made the statement while he was addressing the press after sitting was adjourned following the free for all brawl during a debate over E-levy.
Meanwhile, the Minority Caucus has also resolved to go at any length to oppose the E-levy
“Who must pay direct tax to the government? Effectively, it is only 2.4 million Ghanaians who pay taxes now, and about 6.8 million Ghanaians are not paying taxes yet they earn income. So it is for the Finance Ministry to go after these people who earn income so that they pay the appropriate tax to the government.”
“Why is Ken Ofori-Atta not going that way? He wants to sit in the comfort of his office with air-conditioning and tax the lazy way.”
Leader of the Minority Caucus, Haruna Iddrissu has also described the E-levy bill as ‘technically incompetent’.
He is of the view that it was wrong for the bill to suggest that for every transfer of above GHS 100, the sender will be charged, and in cases where the same amount is transferred to different people, that sender will be charged multiple times.
“Their grand deception will fail. I have technical competence in the telecom and communications sector. What the telcos are charging is fees and not transactions. The government is deceiving them to lower their fee charges by 0.25% and that makes up for the 1.75% they want to introduce.”
“No telco charges on transactions. They only charge transaction fees of 1% of transfers. I think that technically, this bill is incompetent and they must consult well,” he said.
By: Stella Annan | myactiveonline.com Twitter @activetvgh
