The Member of Parliament for Bortianor-Ngleshie Amanfro Constituency, Sylvester Matthew Tetteh, has indicated that the controversial Electronic Transaction Levy, popularly known as the e-levy, will not be mandatory, after all.
He admits that even in the initial stages of implementation, after its approval, there will be an attrition in users of electronic transactions, but that the situation will normalise.
“The e-levy is not a mandatory tax,” he stated on TV3‘s New Day with Johnnie Hughes on Monday, March 14.
“That is why I say that even the projections of government could be lower.”
The bill seeking approval of the levy has been put on hold as the Finance Minister, Kenneth Nana Yaw Ofori-Atta, who first announced it on Wednesday, November 17, 2021, is on a regional tour to engage the citizenry before returning to Parliament for further deliberations.
The Bill has stirred controversy to the extent that members of the two caucuses in Parliament have engaged in fisticuffs.
It is unknown when the Bill will come up again for consideration as the week-after-week agenda by the Business Committee has seen it missing.
The Minority has insisted that it will oppose the Bill to the end.
Speaking on the same programme, Adaklu MP Governs Kwame Agbodza said he is planning to deactivate his Mobile Money account in the unlikely event that the e-levy is approved.
“Mr Hughes, I will delete my MoMo account the day e-levy comes,” he vowed, “because it just appears to me that government sees me as a cash cow and after taking me all taxes and the way I spend my money, they want to take more.”
By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh (3news.com|Ghana)
