The Deputy Information Minister, Fatima Abubakar, has intimated that the introduction of the E-levy is because the nation is in a post COVID economy and not in normal times.
According to the Minister, it is not a characteristic of government to burden Ghanaians that is why the E-levy is being introduced deal with the economy, post COVID.
“A lot of Ghanaians were complaining that we don’t have to borrow because we are borrowing too much. If we are not borrowing, we are either doing burden sharing or we are begging.”
Fatima Abubakar
Fatima Abubakar disclosed that what COVID did to the Ghanaian and the global economy at large is that more resources are required to take care of a nation’s expenditure. As a result, she stated that it’s either the nation is raising resources domestically or “you are going to borrow or you go to IMF”.
“So, basically these are the options available to the various governments around the world or you cut your expenditure.”
Fatima Abubakar
According to the Deputy Minister, she believes government is committed to engaging a lot of people on the E-levy introduction for reasons being that President Akufo-Addo informed Ghanaians that the way he wants to move forward with the economy is to move from taxation to production.
“You would realize that as soon as he assumed office, some seventeen taxes that we persist to be nuisance taxes were removed so that Ghanaians will not have to suffer with the issue of taxation. And in place, we wanted to create a business friendly environment so that people can do business and that is the reason why special import levy was removed, 5 percent VAT on real estates was removed amongst others.”
Fatima Abubakar
Minority’s stand on E-levy
Speaking on the E-levy, Angela Alorwa Tay, Member of Parliament for Afadjato South stated that the minority has the right to stand for what they believe in Parliament and what will also affect the very poor in society, resulting in their opposition to the E-levy.
Angel Tay indicated that the Minority has never been this firm in Parliament since 2017 till date until the E-levy came to Parliament. She noted that the Minority has supported government in carrying out its duties, approving of taxes and has never opposed everything that government has brought to the house but rather supported in doing business just for the good of the people in the country.
She intimated that the nation together with the MPs deserve to know what the nation’s monies are being used for.
“When the E-levy bill came, we asked questions. One of the questions we asked was that on what figure or who pays the levy? We didn’t get an answer. Then they came up to tell us the telcos have agreed to do 0.25 off their 1 percent charge on the fee. We are saying that we can cut down on expenditure especially the Presidency.”
Angela Alorwa Tay
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