The Member of Parliament (MP) for Essikado-Ketan constituency, Mr Joe Ghartey has asserted that the controversial E-levy will be the solution to Ghana’s unending employment problem.
The legislature in a media engagement indicated that the government has identified ways of helping the youth through the unemployment endemic by creating financial opportunities for them to work.
According to him, the government has identified one of the ways of helping the youth which was to create some kind of financial opportunity for them to work through the E-levy.
Mr Ghartey expressed the hope that the E-levy would be a game-changer that will broaden the tax net and for that matter, produce enough revenue for government projects such as job creation and implementation of policies.
“There are some communities that don’t even have one kilometre of tarred road, the government needs this money for infrastructural development and the E-levy will be a solution for these major developments”, he pointed out.
On Wednesday, November 17, 2021, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance on behalf of the government presented the 2022 Budget indicating a 1.75 per cent charge on all electronic transactions.
The E-levy charges were meant to affect all online transactions such as mobile money payments, bank transfers, merchants and inward remittance across the country.
Since the announcement of the E-levy was made by Mr Ofori-Atta, it has been the topic of discussion as some citizens express dissatisfaction whiles there have been arguments between specialists concerning it and suffering the full attention of the hung parliament.
For instance, the E-Commerce Association of Ghana had said the government’s efforts to digitize the economy would be a waste if the E-levy policy takes effect in 2022.
It said, “the initiative would erode all gains made by government’s digitization agenda and be a major U-turn to the government’s vision on a Cash-lite economy.”
A statement issued in Accra by Mr Paul Asinor, Executive Director of the Association said even though the initiative would expand the government’s revenue collection base, the initiative had a far-reaching consequence on customers and in turn, their businesses if not carefully looked at.
