You can transfer GH¢3,000 monthly without a pesewa tax — Keta MCE

Mr Emmanuel Gemegah, Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Keta, has described claims the proposed introduction of electronic transaction levy (E-levy) will impose more hardship on the vulnerable as misleading.

He said the aged and less endowed in society could make mobile money transfers up to about GH¢3,000.00 in a month without paying a pesewa charge on them.

Mr Gemegah, who was speaking at the 65th Independence Day parade at Keta, said the transfer of GH¢100.00 daily was non-taxable and that people could utilise this exemption to send as much as about GH¢3,000.00 monthly without any charge by transferring GH¢100.00 every day of the month.

He said Ghana as a middle-income country needed to raise revenue to match the increasing demand for developmental projects to improve the lives of citizens, saying it was important to expand the tax net to include almost all adult citizens hence the proposed introduction of the E-levy.

The MCE called on the people, including schoolchildren, to become ambassadors of the E-levy to make Mr Kwame Dzudzorli Gakpey, Member of Parliament for the area, accept and vote for the passage of the bill to allow the government to collect more revenue for development projects.

“Fortunately, the government’s proposal on E-levy has exempted the aged and the less endowed in our society. Therefore, we have no excuse not to impress on our representative in Parliament to work with the government side to pass the bill so that, as a country, we can bounce back better from the effect of devastating COVID-19 on our economy.”

The parade, which was attended by municipal security chiefs, heads of departments, traditional leaders and municipal executives of the New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Congress, had pupils, students, cadet corps and other identifiable groups put up wonderful performances.

It was held on the theme: “Working Together, Bouncing Back Better”.