Africa-Press – Ghana. Mr Ken Ofori Atta, the Minister of Finance, has said the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy) is not fashioned to affect the population of the country.
He said the E-Levy was to give consistency, pay debts and build infrastructure and deliver on the country’s goal of becoming the economic bastion of Africa.
Mr Ofori Atta said this during the fifth Government Townhall Meeting in Ho organised by the Ministries of Finance and Information. He described the new levy as burden sharing, which could only be realised through sacrifice by the people.
He said only 2.2 per cent of Ghana’s population of about 32 million paid taxes, with about 11 million people outside of the tax net. The Finance Minister wondered why people would go into economic theories, use them against the status quo when there were 11 million youths to be catered for.
He said the economy witnessed a steady improvement from the 3.4 per cent growth it met in 2017 to an average of seven per cent with inflation recording a single-digit but these were eroded by the monstrous COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr Pius Enam Hadzide, the Executive Director of the National Youth Authority, said the Authority had 13 pro-Youth interventions to be financed from the passage of the E-Levy.
He said 40 1D1F were designated to serve the youth with the reservation of 40 factories to explore and become self-reliant. Others included Advancing Technology capacity and modernisation of agriculture for import substitution.
He said there was massive youth unemployment at 12.6 per cent in 2019, down from 16.9 per cent in 2015. He said the Authority had a three-year programme, dubbed the New Start to engage 0ne million youth between the ages of 15 to 35.
Mr John-Peter Amewu, the Minister of Railway Development, said the levy was to generate revenue for development. He said manual means could not be deployed to mobilise electronic revenue.
Dr Archibald Letsa, the Volta Regional Minister, said regardless of the challenges the region continue to face, the National budget did not discriminate against development projects, hence the need for the people to accept the Levy in good faith.
Mr Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, Minister of Information, said the country had failed to chart a pathway to discuss the economic situation and challenges of the country for progress.
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