Embrace E-Levy and honor it religiously - NPP's National Organizer Aspirant to Ghanaians

An aspiring National Youth Organizer of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Prince Kamal Gumah has appealed to Ghanaians to embrace the controversial Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy) policy and honor it religiously.

According to him, accepting the tax policy and honoring it religiously will help the country generate the needed revenue to address its developmental needs and provide employment opportunities for the masses, particularly the youth to improve their living conditions.

Mr. Gumah argued that the country cannot continue to seek support from donor partners and international agencies such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as such support does not help the course of the country hence, the need to accept policies like the E-levy which seek to raise revenue internally.

 
He believes the Ghanaian youth in the next few years will no longer risk their lives seeking greener pastures abroad if the E-levy is successfully implemented as he is certain that the levy will help the country resolve the issue of unemployment, particularly among youth.

“I’m telling you if Ghanaians agree and we are paying this E-levy, in the next 15 to 20 years, no Ghanaian will want to travel abroad. Abroad, 60 percent of your money goes into taxes. I have lived there for more than 18 years. Most of your money will go into taxes. So E-levy is not a bad thing. It is something that will help this country,” he stated.

Mr. Gumah added, “Do you know that right now if we go to IMF, they will give us the money and give us conditions. They will ask us not to employ again and some other clauses I can’t say on air. Some of those conditions affect our core tradition as a people so if we can raise such money and the money that we will raise will even be more than what the IMF will be giving us (why don’t embrace that?  I think the E-levy is a perfect thing. Ghana is a religious country, even in the Bible and the Qur’an, they paid taxes”.

His comments come on the back of an injunction application filed at the Supreme Court by the Minority Leader and two other Minority MPs seeking to stop the implementation of the E-levy.

Parliament, on March 29, 2022, passed the E-levy bill in the absence of the Minority side of the house. The Minority, who had staged a walkout while the bill was being considered, argued that Parliament did not have the required quorum to pass the bill after they staged the walkout hence, the passage was unconstitutional.

They subsequently applied to the Apex Court praying for an annulment of the bill’s approval. The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), however, served notice of commencing the implementation of the levy on May 1, 2022.

In a bid to stop the GRA from proceeding with the implementation, the 3 MPs filed an injunction application at the court which is scheduled to be heard on May 4.