Government has annouced a number of taxes in the 2022 budget statement
Ghanaians do not really trust the government to use the taxes they collect judiciously hence the opposition to the e-levy introduction, the Chief Executive Officer of the African Energy Consortium Limited, Kwame Jantuah, has said.
In his view, most Ghanaians don’t have confidence in the government’s ability to use the tax properly.
Speaking on the Key Points on TV3/3FM with host Dzifa Bampoh on Saturday December 11, Jantuah who is also a private legal practitioner told the government to “Convince Ghanaians that the money will be used judiciously. Explain to Ghanaians how monies have been used.”
He further indicated that the government should have done a wider consultation on the proposed E-levy before its introduction in the 2022 budget statement.
In his view, the Finance Ministry should have sought ideas from civil society groups and all other stakeholders on the policy to make it acceptable by all.
He said “Whether they put e-levy on it or they don’t, government wins.
“So, they put a levy on MoMo, Ghanaians decide we are not going to do MoMo. Two things, they might either keep their money under their bed or they will revert to the banks. If they revert to the banks, who borrows from the banks? Who do the banks want or likely to loan money to?
“Is it the private sector or government? It is government. So, if people put their money back to the banks, government goes to the banks, loan money from the banks because the banks know that it is guaranteed that government will pay, and what does that do to the private sector as the engine of growth? It collapses because these same banks don’t give private sector the money. so either way government wins.
“But I feel that if it so happened that initially before they start to think about e-levy they had consultations with civil society, stakeholders and all maybe it would have been more acceptable than it is now,” Jantuah said.