While many Ghanaians oppose the controversial electronic transaction levy, also known as e-levy, which seeks to tax all electronic and digital transactions, Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo has insisted that implementing it will ensure that all Ghanaians contribute their fair share, and insists it’s essential for the national development of the country. The President was speaking at the 2022 National Labour Conference where he stated that the percentage of Ghanaians who pay direct taxes is inadequate and unfair to the minority who do pay.
In his words “We cannot continue to allow less than 10%, that is 2.4 million people of the population carry the direct tax burden of 30.8 million people.” He added also that the scheme was an inventive way to raise revenue for the country. “The proposed e-levy is such an innovative fiscal measure that will help improve our tax to GDP ratio on an equitable basis. I believe strongly that it is in the public interest that it should be enacted into law. We cannot continue to live on foreign savings,” the president stated.
The issue of the e-levy has elicited strong reactions from the citizens of Ghana, many of whom say it does not serve the interest of regular Ghanaians and is likely to jeopardize the digital economy. In December 2021, a fight broke out in Parliament as lawmakers debated the pros and cons of the e-levy.
President Akufo-Addo on his part maintains that for Ghana to deal with its insufficient revenue issues which have resulted in global credit rating agencies downgrading its economic outlook, the e-levy is the way to go. “It is time we accepted the full implications of our goal of Ghana Beyond Aid and designed our fiscal profile accordingly. The Asian Tigers, whom we envy and want to emulate, financed their rapid development from their own savings. We need to do the same.”