The People’s National Convention (PNC), says, although they support the introduction of the E-Levy, the government should have considered its burden on Ghanaians and reduced the tax to 0.75% instead of the 1.5%.
Despite a minority walkout on Tuesday, Parliament approved the controversial bill. The tax will introduce 1.5 percent charge on electronic money transfers.
The government claims it will help raise enough revenue to be used to address the problems of unemployment and high public debt.
General Secretary of the Peoples’ National Congress, Janet Nabla, said the PNC is not opposed to the levy, only that the charge should have been further reduced.
“1.5% on mobile money transactions is substantial. The PNC’s position is that government should have reduced the charges to 1% or even 0.75%. We agree that E-Levy is a necessary evil. We knew the economy and the problems we were facing, so we were never against paying.”
“Now that it has been passed, we want the government to put the monies accrued to good use. Ghanaians were opposed to the levy because they complained they have not seen the impact of the taxes collected by the government so far.”
The levy, which was amended from 1.75 percent to 1.5 percent, will be a tax on electronic transactions, which includes mobile-money payments.
The charge will apply to electronic transactions that are more than GH¢100 on a daily basis.
Critics of the proposal have warned that this new levy will negatively impact the Fintech space, as well as hurt low-income people and those outside the formal banking sector.
Three members of the Minority NDC in parliament including its leader, Haruna Iddrisu, have filed a suit at the Supreme Court to challenge the passage of the levy which was done in their absence after they boycotted proceedings.
According to them, the house did not have the numbers to pass the levy.
