Pack out if E-Levy is your only solution - Kwesi Pratt tells government

Government rules out seeking IMF assistance

MPs divided over E-levy

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Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr has asked the government to leave office if it continues to tout the E-Levy as the panacea to Ghana’s economic woes.



Read full article/> Speaking at a Socialist Movement of Ghana program to mark the 56th year since the overthrow of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the veteran journalist lamented the economic challenges of the country.

He noted that the situation has gone from bad to worse since the overthrow of Nkrumah.

He added that the economy had deteriorated to the extent that the government has been unable to pay NABCo trainees for the past seven months.

Commenting on the raging conversations on the controversial E-Levy, Kwesi Pratt Jnr observed that Ghanaians are unwilling to pay the new tax measure.

He emphasized that “we will never pay that E-levy”.

Kwesi Pratt Jnr said the government should pack out of office if it has no other alternative besides the E-Levy in seeking to solve the economic challenges.

“Only yesterday, the Minister of Finance made a rather interesting statement...Ken Ofori-Atta looked all of us in the face and said the Ghanaian economy is in tatters and he said if we don’t agree to pay the E-Levy, Armageddon will visit us.

"Clearly, the only solution they appear to have is E-Levy. For their information, we will never pay that E-Levy and if all they can do is to impose the E-levy on us…and they know that if they are not able to impose the E-levy on us the economy will crush, then maybe they should start advising themselves to pack out of office because we ain’t going to pay that E-levy,” he said.

The program was on the theme “56 years since the overthrow of Nkrumah: The state of the Ghanaian Economy”

Background

The government in its 2022 budget statement announced a new tax measure christened Electronic Transaction Levy (E-levy).

The tax if approved will slap a 1.5% charge on all electronic transactions including Mobile Money (MoMo).

Opinions of Members of Parliament and the public at large have since the announcement of the new tax been sharply divided.

Whiles the majority NPP MPs support it as a catalyst for the country’s development, the all NDC minority side believe it will impose further hardship on Ghanaians.

The government is currently holding townhall meetings to court support for the levy.