E-levy Is A Catalyst For Ghana Beyond Aid: Razak Kojo Opoku Writes
Recently, Dr. Nii Moi Thompson, a former Director-General of the National Development Planning Commission under Mahama’s administration suggested that, “Akufo-Addo’s Government should focus on strong tax base, not widening the tax net”. Dr. Nii Moi Thompson wrote and spoke plenty grammar about the E-levy. According to him, “the Government should focus on improving efficiency, raising productivity and raising incomes in the informal sector to ensure a much higher tax base”.
Funny enough, this same Dr. Nii Moi Thompson was the one who developed a 40-year Development Plan for Ghana without providing a single meaningful master plan to successfully ensure the FINANCING of the projects, policies and programmes captured in his proposed 40-year development plan. Ideas on paper without the required financing to actualize them is completely useless.
Respectfully, Dr. Nii Moi should update himself with the “Base of the Pyramid Theory” in order to appreciate the need of how important it is to widen the tax base to include the informal sector of the economy through the E-levy Policy.
For the avoidance of doubt, the Akufo-Addo Government has been :
1. Improving efficiency with its digitalization/Digitization policy aimed at ensuring digital economy and cashless or cash-lite system in Ghana.
2. Contributing to raising productivity through reliable energy supply to industries/manufacturing companies, enabling environment at the Ports, scrapping of Mahama’s 16 nuisance taxes, and implementing programmes such as 1D1F, Planting for food and jobs etc.
3. Contributing to raising incomes in the informal sector through various programmes under GEA, NEIP, YEA, NALEP, MASLOC, and thousands of kilometers of road construction etc. Again with the initiative of Akufo-Addo’s Mobile Money Interoperability, the transaction value of Mobile money service has increased from GHS78billion to GHS978billion, a platform predominantly used by the informal sector to transact day-to-day businesses.
As it stands now, there is no resource alternative or an avenue that can help Ghana to generate an annual revenue of $1 billion in order to deal with the perennial budget deficit of the Country especially in this era of global COVID-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine War except massive domestic revenue mobilization drive through the E-levy Policy.
Let’s all support our Country’s socioeconomic development through the patriotic payment of the E-levy, and it is equally our patriotic rights and responsibilities to demand accountability and transparency from the Government in this regard.
With the sustainability of the E-levy policy, Ghana will surely and gradually attain the goal of developing without aid or loans from the IMF or World Bank.