Abena Osei Asare, Ghana’s Deputy Finance Minister, is encouraging Ghanaians to support the e-levy as a locally developed answer to the country’s revenue woes.
She stated it would greatly increase Ghana’s tax net, speaking on Eyewitness News in response to calls for Ghana to go to the IMF and abandon the e-levy.
“I feel this is a homegrown solution that will best serve our interests, that will bring more people into the tax net, and we believe that just with this e-levy, we will be able to get up to roughly 85 percent of the informal sector into the tax net.”
She also said the e-levy was a better alternative to a potential return to the International Monetary Fund.
“Globally, there are issues everywhere and all countries are trying very hard to find space within themselves to develop and then you have [a method you can use] to raise more revenue, and you say you are shelving that and running to IMF?”.
“What happened to homegrown solutions? What happened to the spirit of yes, we can do it ourselves… Let us come together, support this government to push this e-levy, and we will see the results of the E-Levy,” Mrs Asare said.
The Deputy Minister was speaking after a former Chair of the Finance Committee of Parliament, Dr. Mark Assibey Yeboah, urged the government to reconsider its decision not to go back to the International Monetary Fund in the face of the country’s dwindling revenues.
