President’s home region, other regions strongly oppose implementation of E-Levy – Survey reveals
Regional analysis of the implementation of the levy by Ghanaian research firm, Global InfoAnalytics, shows massive opposition of the E-levy in the Upper West with 99% opposing the bill, followed by Central, 96%, Savannah, 93% and Volta 92%.
Surprisingly, the President’s home region which is the Eastern, had 85% of those surveyed opposing the implementation of the E-Levy.
For the swing regions – Central and Western Regions – through which he won the 2016 and 2020 elections, 96% and 88% of those surveyed in the two regions respectively, said “No” to the implementation of the levy.
Only Ashanti region supports the E-levy with 69% supporting it and 26% opposing it. Opinion in the Bono region is equally divided as “Yes” attract 47% and “No” 47%.
For the Northern region, support for the levy is 44% and 39% oppose it.
The survey conducted further revealed that only 23% of eligible Ghanaian voters are in support of the implementation of the levy.
Contrary to the support given by the 23% of voters for the passage and implementation of the levy, some 72% of voters are against the passage and subsequent implementation of the levy.
On the lines of partisanship, the survey conducted revealed that, while 86.6% of the members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) are opposed to the levy, 56% of the members of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) are also opposed to the levy.
The E-levy proposal in the 2022 budget statement has sharply divided Parliament. The opposition MPs have rejected the proposal.
The Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu said the policy proposal is a disincentive to the growth of digital economy.
To that end, he said, the Minority would not support it.
Speaking at a post budget workshop in Ho on Saturday November 20, he said “Mr Speaker, understandably, we see that the Minister of Finance seeks to introduce some measures including the now popularly declared e-levy or digital levy as some have quite named it.
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“Mr Speaker, our concern is whether the e-levy itself is not and will not be a disincentive to the growth of digital economy in our country . We are convinced that the e-levy may as well even be a disincentive to investment and a disincentive to private sector development in our country. We in the minority may not and will not support government with the introduction of that particular e-levy . We are unable to build national consensus on that particular matter.”
Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta announced this levy to be charged by government in 2022 on all electronic transactions to widen the tax net and rope in the informal sector.
“It is becoming clear there exists enormous potential to increase tax revenues by bringing into the tax bracket, transactions that could be best defined as being undertaken in the ‘informal economy’,” Mr Ofori-Atta observed on Wednesday, November 17 as he presented the 2022 budget statement in Parliament.
“After considerable deliberations, government has decided to place a levy on all electronic transactions to widen the tax net and rope in the informal sector. This shall be known as the ‘Electronic Transaction Levy or E-Levy’.”
He explained that the new E-levy will be a 1.75 per cent charge on all electronic transactions covering mobile money payments, bank transfers, merchant payments and inward remittances to be borne by the sender except inward remittances, which will be borne by the recipient.
This will, however, not affect transactions that add up to GH¢100 per day.
“A portion of the proceeds from the E-Levy will be used to support entrepreneurship, youth employment, cyber security, digital and road infrastructure among others,” he added.
