E-levy or not, government wins – Jantuah

The Chief Executive Officer African Energy Consortium Limited, Kwame Jantuah has said  government will in each way win if Ghanaians accept the 1.75% electronic levy imposed on mobile money transaction or not.

He said as it stands Ghanaians have only two options if they fail to accept the e-levy and that is to keep their money at home or revert to the banks where government can still borrow same.

Mr Jantuah made the observation on TV3’s current affairs programme, TheKeyPoint monitored by GhanaPlus.com on Saturday, December 11.

 “Whether they put e-levy on it or they don’t, government wins. “So, they put a levy on MoMo, Ghanaians decide we are not going to do MoMo. Two things, they might either keep their money under their bed or they will revert to the banks. If they revert to the banks, who borrows from the banks? Who do the banks want or likely to loan money to?

“Is it the private sector or government? It is government. So, if people put their money back to the banks, government goes to the banks, loan moneys from the banks because the banks know that it is guaranteed that government will pay, and what does that do to the private sector as the engine of growth? It collapses because these same banks don’t give private sector the money. so either way government wins.

Mr Jantuah was of the opinion, a consultation with stakeholders prior to the proposed e-levy would have mitigated the impact of the rejection currently be face with.

“But I feel that if it so happened that initially before they start to think about e-levy they had consultations with civil society, stakeholders and all maybe it would have been more acceptable than it is now.”

Gov’t of Ghana introduce Momo Tax

The government of Ghana in its 2022 Budget Statement presented by the Finance Minister, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta on Wednesday, November 17 proposed  an electronic transaction levy of 1.75% applicable on all MoMo transaction exceeding ₵100.

The levy, according to the Finance Minister is to help widen the tax net and rope in the informal sector into the country tax system.

“After considerable deliberations, the 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”, Mr Ofori-Atta told Parliament.

The levy has however been rejected by Ghanaians, the Minority in Parliament and the opposition National Democratic Congress(NDC)

Source: GhanaPlus.com