Abena Osei-Asare suggests government may review e-levy implementation strategy

A Deputy Minister of Finance, Abena Osei-Asare, has suggested that the government is likely to soon review the implementation strategy for the proposed Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy).

Speaking at a Deloitte Economic Dialogue Webinar on the 2022 budget, Osei-Asare said the government is very interested in promoting a cashless system and also finding ways to generate revenue for the development of the country.

“This is a very good initiative by the government and I encourage everyone to engage the government and support us to implement this very good measure that will rake in close to about GHS 7 billion to help in the development agenda in terms of youth employment, development of road infrastructure and cybersecurity…I believe that some form of a position will be taken by the government in shaping the implementation strategy and announcement on the E-Levy.”

Meanwhile, an Economist, Daniel Amarteye Anim, says the introduction of the Electronic Transaction Levy also known as E-levy geared at increasing revenue generation is a deviation from the practice in the Africa sub-region.

Speaking to Naa Dedei Tettey on Starr Today on Tuesday, the Economist reiterated that the E-levy cannot be in consonance with the practice in Africa adding that when introduced Ghanaians must demand that the revenue generated are used for their benefit within the medium term and long term perspective.

According to him, Ghanaians have rejected a similar levy – Financial Service Levy- before so the government would have to look elsewhere if it wants to maximise revenue.

“Initially, when the Minister made the announcement when he was reading the budget, I was with the view that this is an economy that we wanted. We wanted to go cashless and drive digitisation and financial inclusiveness, so introducing the E-levy at this time may not be too good and not appropriate.

“More importantly, because we have case studied within the Sub-region to suggest and what some of us have read about Kenya, Uganda and the rest and even back home we have a similar situation. If you can recall, when the Financial Services levy was introduced, we realised that it will not help financial inclusiveness in terms of people patronising the products and services of the Commercial Bank. Quickly, it was withdrawn,” Mr. Anim revealed.