I Ask Myself Questions Why Free SHS Beneficiaries Against E-Levy - Finance Minister

Honorable Ken Ofori-Atta, the Finance Minister of Ghana has registered his frustration at the rejection of the E-levy proposal by some youth of the country including some free senior high school graduates.

According to him, the E-Levy will be used to fund road projects, programs, infrastructure deficit, and government policy like the free Senior High School.

He questioned the public whether they know the effect of rejecting the E-levy will be since government needs resources to fund the program and other programs.

At the Government’s 3rd Townhall meeting in Tamale to sensitize the public on the need for the E-levy to be passed by Parliament, he said “If  I look at  E-levy for instance, and I say that this year we intend to collect 7billion cedis and I look at mobile money subscribers and there are over 21million of us.

He mentioned that “So assuming I divide this 7billion by 21million  of us, it is about 300 cedis a year for each person, divide by 12.

“So when I see the energy especially with which graduates who have gone through free senior high are against  E-levy,  I ask whether they are calculating what the cost is.  And I ask in truthfulness that does any graduate make more than  8000 or 5000?

Ken Ofori said government plans for the E-Levy are positive, but the youth and those who benefited from the Senior High School are up in arms.

“So truly who should be paying for it? You have every responsibility to ask me to account for it. But we as a people, can’t pretend that we don’t need these resources to do what we are doing. No graduate makes 100,000 cedis a year.”

Some residents of Tamale also shared their views on the E-Levy, with some calling on the government to suspend the policy due to the current condition of the citizens.

Others also reasoned with the government to go ahead to pass the bill considering the economy turns around it will have on Ghana.