The NDC Youth Forum has urged the Minority in Parliament to remain resolute, united and firm to resist the passage of what they described as “Dracula killer” Electronic Transaction Tax (E-levy) with the last atom of their strength.
They are asking the NDC MPs not to ever disappoint the ordinary Ghanaians who are looking up to them to continue to do the needful.
In a statement issued in Accra and signed by Osman Iddrisu Banpouri, Secretary of the NDC Youth Forum, it stated, “We are urging the Minority in Parliament not to disappoint their constituents, taking into account the further hardship this e-levy would bring to the people of Ghana.”
The statement noted, “we cannot fathom why the NPP administration is bent on implementing this wicked e-levy without taking into consideration its accompanying implications and the hardship that it would unleash on the people of Ghana”.
According to Osman Iddrisu Banpouri, taxing people’s income amounts to double taxation which must be resisted at all cost.
“What we want the government to know and understand is that monies in individual mobile money wallets are their savings after they have paid their income taxes, as well as Pay As You Earn (PAYE) taxes, so the government cannot engage in double taxations, after eating the meat to the marrow.
“As we speak, the e-levy has been universally rejected from all quarters, even in the home town of the Vice President, Dr Alhaji Bawumia who is vigorously championing the e-levy indirectly as a cheap means of extracting monies from Ghanaians.
“The mind-boggling question is that the John Mahama administration started this cash lite system and now this government wants to take us back to the cash heavy system. We are calling on all well-meaning Ghanaians to reject it in any other form,” he stated.
The government is bent on implementing the e-levy as a means of revenue assurance to the external creditors but the NDC Youth Forum says “after scaling up our public debt to GHC344.5 billion at the end of November 2021, with nothing to show, this government wants to transfer the liabilities to we the good people of Ghana. We want to send a signal to the government that, when it dares to forcefully implement this e-levy, we would spearhead series of demonstrations across the country, until it is reversed.”
Osman Iddrisu Banpouri urged government to block revenue loopholes and cut expenditures if it want to meet its revenue shortfall.
“We ask the government to rather block the loopholes in our system, cut down on unwarranted expenditure as well as the size of the government, so it can make some savings and channel these resources into good use.”
He stated, “The NPP government should spare us with this rhetoric.”
The controversial 1.75% Electronic Transfer Levy popularly known as E-levy continues to be one of the key decisions the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government is hoping to pass into law in the coming weeks.
According to the NPP, the e-levy will increase Ghana’s tax-to-GDP from 13% to a targeted 16% or more.
