The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has taken a dig at former President John Dramani Mahama over his criticisms of the economy and the government’s intended revenue mobilization measure, the Electronic Transaction levy (E-Levy).

Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, February 9, Director of Communications of the NPP, Yaw Buaben Asamoa stated that the economic hardship being experienced was not unique to Ghana but rather it was a global phenomenon as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He mentioned that IMF bailouts and borrowing was not only going to be difficult but also very expensive route.

Yaw Buaben Asamoa stressed that the NPP will support the Akufo-Addo led administration in implementing homegrown policies for revenue mobilization including the E-Levy.

He urged former President Mahama to “come to the quick realization that the new normal is a far cry from what he knew and experienced before and that old-fashioned assumptions cannot work like before in the current Covid economy.

“The rating agencies believe that E-levy could be an important path of that recovery. They are saying it in their report. They believe the E-levy when passed could be an important part of our recovery efforts.

“They have also accepted that the 20% cut by the government is important to support that process. We have a situation where Ghana’s economy, provided we can resolve ourselves in Parliament is in the position to grow even faster than before given that the is still uncertainty worldwide about the direction of Covid which means we would have to keep on spending on containment measures and yet we need to spend on other sectors as well to grow the economy.

“In the light of this situation, we in the NPP find former president Mahama’s outburst that the E-levy is and I’m quoting him ‘neither adequate nor viable’…it seems a bit myopic to say at this stage that the E-levy is neither adequate nor viable seems rather myopic.

“He is entitled to take advantage of the situation in Parliament but he needs to come to the quick realization that the new normal is a far cry from what he knew and experienced before and that old fashioned assumptions cannot work like before in the current Covid economy” Buaben Asamoa said.

Former President Mahama in a social media post said Ghana’s economy was in deep crisis and in need of urgent intervention to avert a total collapse.

He chastised the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and his government for their overreliance on the E-levy to solve the economic challenges of the country.

“President Nana Akufo-Addo and his Head of the Economic Management Team, rather appallingly, remain nonchalant in the face of this serious crisis and have limited their response to the imposition of very harsh and regressive tax measures, one of which is the E-Levy, which has been roundly rejected by the people of Ghana.

“Like one drowning and yet clutching at mere straw to stay afloat, this government has banked all its hopes on the E-Levy, which, given the gravity and depth of the problems that have beset our economy, is neither adequate nor viable as a sustainable response to the crisis” he wrote.

Former President Mahama also proposed that the government organises a homemade Economic Forum to assembly experts and stakeholders to proffer solutions in addressing the country’s woes.

“As I have indicated previously, the government must as a matter of urgency, borrow a leaf from our sound approach toward the challenges we faced in 2015. We immediately convened the Senchi Economic Forum at which we tapped the brains and expertise of a wide variety of knowledgeable people and stakeholders and built a consensus on our economic plan going forward.

“The knowledge shared at Senchi crystallized into our Homegrown Fiscal Consolidation Programme, which we eventually presented to the IMF for support. The IMF agreed entirely with our homegrown strategy whose implementation restored stability to the economy and laid the strong foundations that this government, just as the World Bank in 2016 forecasted, profited from between 2017 and 2020,” he added