Early Days To Dismiss E-Levy; Levy Can Provide Us More Money Than Going to the IMF – Nana Akomea Argues

Former Director of Communications for the New Patriotic Party, Nana Akomea, has shared his thoughts on recent remarks by a confidante of the President, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, in relation to the abysmal performance of the Electronic Transactions Levy (E-Levy) since its introduction.

Contributing to panel discussions on Peace FM’s Kokrokoo, Nana Akomea said a lot of commitment and thought has gone into the e-levy for people to ask for its withdrawal.

He called on the Ghanaian people to give the controversial tax some time since it is new and the government has a lot to benefits to generate from it

Mr. Akomea, who serves as the Managing Director of Intercity STC, further deflated arguments that the country will be better off if it avails itself of the support of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), adding that the e-levy has a lot more potential and advantages.

“It’s too early to pass judgment on the E-Levy…Why go to the IMF when the E-Levy will give us the same amount of money that IMF will give us?”, he remarked.

Mr. Otchere-Darko had posted on Twitter on Monday that the E-levy which was implemented in May 1 had not lived up to expectation, raking in about 10% of the estimated revenues for last month.

“After 5 months of stalemate and bashing, the e-levy, after implementation, is delivering only 10% of estimated revenues; our revenues remain very low as compared to the rest of the world; debt levels dangerously high, cedi, like most currencies, struggling against the US dollar”,  adding that the “E-levy, which was to have given us some 600m by now, has done less than 60 million,” he tweeted.

He further wrote a post indicative of the government’s intention to give in to an IMF support: “There’s, understandably, a national aversion to an IMF program, because of the history of conditionalities which attack sacred cows like jobs and social interventions. Akufo-Addo will not sacrifice free SHS and other critical welfare policies to help the poor with any assistance…. Am I against an IMF program in principle? No”.

However, according to Nana Akomea, there is a need for the government to re-engage stakeholders to address any challenges the e-levy may be facing.