General News of Saturday, 8 January 2022
Source: www.ghanaweb.live
2022-01-08E-levy is being misunderstood – Ambrose Dery
Ambrose Dery is Minister for Interior and MP for Nandom
E-levy is a new tax contained in the 2022 budget
Parliament failed to pass E-levy Bill into law last year
E-levy remains priority as Parliament reconvenes after holidays
Minister of Interior and Member
Read full articleof Parliament for Nandom in the Upper West Region is calling on Ghanaians to play their part in development efforts being undertaken by the government.
In an interview with Joy News, Dery specifically charged the citizenry to support the Electronic Transactions Levy (E-levy) Bill that is currently before Parliament.
According to him, the levy had been misunderstood even though government has clearly outlined how it will go into funding development efforts. “The President will continue to develop, we want development, we should learn to pay and contribute to it (development).
“The E-levy is being misunderstood and I believe that if we can allow MTN, when I am sending money to Nandom, I send 5050 and I I pay another 50 and I get nothing. I want you to pay to the state to get better roads and employment for our youth.
“I am calling on all concerned to reconsider and support us constructively to get the necessary resources to build Ghana and move towards a Ghana beyond aid,” he added.
On the upcoming resumption of Parliamentary sittings, Dery stated that he looked forward to MPs doing the right things, tolerating each other and reflecting the peaceful nature of the people they represent and to continue to build Ghana’s democracy.
Deputy Majority Chief Whip, Habib Iddrisu, in an interview earlier this week on GTV stated that the E-levy bill will be passed.
“The E-levy, when we come back to parliament….we only adjourned and it was in the form as it was when we adjourned, when we come back, the Majority side and the leader of government business who’s the Majority Leader will look at how government business will go and we will table it…
“The E-levy as I have said is part of the budget that has been approved, it is part of the appropriation that has been approved and part of revenue target. It will happen,” the MP for Tolon added.
The E-levy was one of the new taxes introduced in the 2022 budget presented to Parliament by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta. Its passage into law become the center of controversy with Minority and Majority caucuses taking entrenched stance against and for it.
