E-levy: Tax people selling on Instagram, Facebook – Sam George

The Member of Parliament for the Ningo Prapram Constituency, Mr Samuel Nartey George has asked government direct the proposed electronic transaction levy, e-levy to persons who engage in profitable businesses on the various social platform instead of all Ghanaians.

Speaking in a viral video sighted by GhanaPlus.com, he said there are several businesses making huge sums of money of Facebook and Instagram for example and must be identified and be made to pay taxes.

“So for me there are better ways of raising money and I believe we should have an electronic tax, don’t get me wrong but the way to do an electronic tax is to tax the persons who are benefiting from digital economy. There are many people who are selling on Instagram, many people who are selling on Facebook, it is those business you must go after and make them pay cooperate taxes”.

The Ningo Prampram MP, although noted he is not against electronic tax, the e-levy in its current form he opined is discriminatory and will affect digitization agenda.

E-Levy

The Government of Ghana is seeking to raise some projected ₵6.9billion from a proposed electronic transaction levy announced in Parliament by the Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori Atta in the 2022 budget statement.

The levy,  purge at a rate of 1.75% initially and subsequently reduced to 1.5% is expected to affect mobile money transfers among others above ₵100 and applicable to senders only.

According to Mr Ofori Atta monies generated from the levy, government said will be use to finance its 2022 flagship programme, You Start and an initiative to support young people to venture into entrepreneurship and also road infrastructure projects.

Ghanaians reject e-levy

However, since the announcement, the levy has been vehemently opposed by Ghanaians, the opposition National Democratic Congress(NDC) and the Minority in Parliament.

Source: GhanaPlus.com