Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the Minister of Information, has denied claims made by members of the public that the government said the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy) would be used to address all of Ghana’s fiscal problems.
He claimed that the E-Levy was only intended to generate money for particular areas of the Ghanaian economy.
The claims that the government said the E-Levy would solve all of the nation’s problems are absurd, the minister continued because the expected revenue from the levy is a drop in the bucket when compared to Ghana’s overall revenue requirements. The minister was speaking in an interview on Oyerepa TV on Monday.
“We never said that (the E-Levy will resolve all our problems). I was part of the government team advocating for the passage of the levy and we stated what the E-Levy would be used for; we never said only the E-Levy would solve all of Ghana’s problems.
“We said that if the E-Levy is properly implemented it would give the government about GHC6 billion in revenue. If you have a budget of over GHC130 billion, will GHC6 billion solve all of Ghana’s problems,” he said in Twi.
Oppong Nkrumah, the Member of Parliament for Ofoase Ayirebi, also said that the E-Levy is not even recouping the expected revenue because of the stiff opposition it saw before it was passed into law.
The E-Levy is a Levy on all electronic transfers of money apart from those excluded by law.
Source – Tru News Report
