Samuel Akoetey with other dignitaries
Mr Samuel Akoetey, Director for Business Development, Centre for Greater Impact Africa has stated that although the concept of E-levy is progressive, Ghana’s economy was not well structured for the high rate of 1.75 per cent.
He said the country was now venturing into digitization and as such, proper procedures were needed to ensure that when the E-levy was implemented it would yield the maximum result.
“If the government is encouraging people to go digital and businesses begin transferring huge sums of money and they realize how huge the taxes on some money will be, they will be discouraged and go back to manual, and that will come back and fight against the policy,” he added.
Mr Akoetey was speaking at the Ghana News Agency Industrial News Hub Boardroom Dialogue platform created for industry players, state and non-state actors to use, as well as other stakeholders to reach out in a proactive means while serving as grounds to address national issues.
He said already, there was one per cent of the electoral levy operationalized by some of the telecommunication companies on mobile money transactions, as such, the Government should consider a lower rate below one per cent so that people would pay without feeling the impact.
He said there was no guarantee that the 1.75 per cent E-levy government was introducing would solve all the problems and bring all the developmental projects in the country.
Mr Akoetey explained that most of the businesses in the country were in the private sector, and that could affect their operations.
He suggested to the government to maintain the payment of the road tolls to raise additional revenue to bring development to the country.
Mr Francis Ameyibor, Tema Regional Manager of the Ghana News Agency noted that the Agency remained the mother of all media organisations in Ghana and revealed that the GNA had over the years maintained its branded image of dissemination of accurate, truthful, balanced, and credible news for the public consumption.
Mr Ameyibor stated that the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic had compelled media organisations including GNA to devise a new strategy to engage stakeholders for newsgathering and dissemination rather than the mediaeval routine model of waiting for events.
He said the Tema Office of the Agency was placing value on news anchored on the news source, the target recipient, the reporter, and the media house: “All these four personalities place value on the news, which must be considered and factored into the news preparation and dissemination”.
He said media must periodically undertake value for news analysis to ensure that all factors of news are satisfied at all times as the only way to remain relevant in the fast-changing information, communication and technological world.
Mr Ameyibor said GNA was focused on disseminating undiluted news items for the public and while building on the foundational legacy established on March 5, 1957 by the first President Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah with the sole aim to tell the Ghanaian and the African story to the rest of the world.