There is a lot to worry about this gov’t – Kwakye Ofosu

A former Deputy Minister of Information, Felix Kwakye Ofosu has said the current Akufo-Addo administration has unleashed severe hardships on Ghanaians.

He said the hardships have been compounded by the introduction of taxes in the 2022 budget statement.

In a Facebook post reacting to the budget statement, he said “Folks,there is a lot to worry about regarding the hardships that this government is heaping on us.

“In addition to the myriad of taxes, not only will ALL government fees and charges be increased by at least 15%,those fees and charges will be upwardly adjusted every year in line with the inflation rate.”

The government has introduced tax on mobile money transactions in the budget statement for the 2022 fiscal year.

The Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta announced a new levy to be charged by government in 2022 on all electronic transactions to widen the tax net and rope in the informal sector.

“It is becoming clear there exists enormous potential to increase tax revenues by bringing into the tax bracket, transactions that could be best defined as being undertaken in the ‘informal economy’,” Mr Ofori-Atta observed on Wednesday, November 17 as he presented the 2022 budget statement in Parliament.

“After considerable deliberations, government has decided to place a levy on all electronic transactions to widen the tax net and rope in the informal sector. This shall be known as the ‘Electronic Transaction Levy or E-Levy’.”

He explained that the new E-levy will be a 1.75 per cent charge on all electronic transactions covering mobile money payments, bank transfers, merchant payments and inward remittances to be borne by the sender except inward remittances, which will be borne by the recipient.

This will, however, not affect transactions that add up to GH¢100 pr less per day.

“A portion of the proceeds from the E-Levy will be used to support entrepreneurship, youth employment, cyber security, digital and road infrastructure among others.”

This new levy is scheduled to start Saturday, January 1, 2022.

In 2020, total value of transactions was estimated to be over GH¢500 million with mobile money subscribers and users growing by 16 percent in 2019.

According to a Bank of Ghana report, Ghana saw an increase of over 120 percent in the value of digital transactions between February 2020 and February 2021 compared to 44 percent for the period February 2019 to February 2020 due to the convenience they offer.

This was definitely heightened by the advent of Covid-19 especially during the lockdown.

Meanwhile, Energy Minister Dr Mathew Opoku has said a lot of education is required on the e-levy that has been introduced in the 2022 budget statement.

Speaking on the New Day show on TV3 he said the levy affect specific transactions, not all.

“The implementation is going to come with education, not everything that is affected. For example less than hundred cedis transaction is not affected. There is a lot of education that needs to be done,” the Manhyia South MP told TV3’s Johnnie Hughes on Thursday November 18.