A list of what government seeks to use 'Agyenkwa E-Levy' for

Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, in his presentation of the 2022 budget announced the implementation of a 1.75% electronic transaction levy.

Since this announcement was made by the minister, there have been so many backlashes leading to a delay in its passage.

Despite stiff opposition, government still remains resolute in passing the bill saying the e-levy

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Government has a total budget of GH¢80.3 billion allocated for the 2022 economic year. Out of this amount, some GH¢6.9 billion is expected to be generated from government’s proposed E-Levy.

- The revenue expected to be generated from the E-Levy has already been allocated to various ministries as captured by the budget, to support projects including infrastructure, public transportation, purchase of buses among others.

Below is a compilation of how government said it will spend E-Levy:

Road Construction

1. The 2022 budget states that, up to 0.25 percentage points of the 1.5 percent e-transaction levy or 16.7 percent of the yield from the levy, will be used to support road infrastructure development. The money generated from the levy would be used for the payments of contractors in Ghana.

Improve Public Transportation

2. Ten percent of the 0.25 percentage points, i.e., 1.67 percent of the yield from the levy, is to be dedicated to the improvement in public transportation, including the purchase of buses.

YouStart Initiative

3. A new government initiative dubbed YouStart is inherently linked to proceeds of the E-Levy.

According to President Akufo Addo, the YouStart Initiative will support young entrepreneurs to gain access to capital, training, technical skills and mentoring to enable them to launch and operate their own businesses as well as employ others. This will also lead to the provision of jobs to about 11million people in the country.

4. Revenue from the E-Levy is to help sustainably invest in entrepreneurship, youth employment, cyber security, digitalization and road infrastructure, as stated by the finance minister.

Security

5. Interior Minister Ambrose Dery also stated that the E-Levy will be used to safeguard security in the country.

Support Government Policies

6. Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta said even though the E-Levy may not bring in a lot of money, what would be realized should be enough to support the government. He added that had the Minority not resisted the policy, the government would have started realizing money that would have been used to pay District Assembly Common Fund.

“E-Levy as small as you might think it will be 7 billion starting this year if we had started early so we could pay your District Assembly Common Fund but you’re [opposition] sitting on it”, he said.