Ghanaian Statesman and renowned Economist, Kwame Pianim believes the E-Levy will defeat the government’s digitalisation agenda.
This, Kwame Pianim said in an exclusive and engaging interview with Kwaku Nhyira-Addo on The Asaase Breakfast Show.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) stalwart said the yet-to-be administered E-levy if approved is backward and anti-technology.
According to him, the policy will sooner than later defeat the government’s own digitalisation agenda when implemented.
READ ALSO, E-Levy is a lazy approach to raise revenue – NPP’s Kwame Pianim
“First of all, I think it is a very backward step. Mobile money has brought financial inclusion to people in the villages who cannot go to the bank and open a bank account. You know what MTN and others are doing, they go to the bank and open an E-wallet for you, we don’t control it they do, they count it as if it is their money, it is not their money.
He has therefore concluded that the introduction of the E-Levy in the 2022 Budget Statement is a lazy approach to mobilizing revenue.
Recalled the Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, announced the E-Levy, a 1.75% tax on mobile money and other electronic transactions, as a measure to “rope the informal sector into the tax net”.
