NDC had ‘E-Levy’ in its 2020 manifesto – Yaw Buaben Asamoa

Yaw Buaben Asamoa, NPP National Communications Director and former Adenta MP, has disclosed that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) which is strongly opposed to the Electronic Transactions Levy (E-Levy) by the Akufo-Addo government had the levy clearly captured in their 2020 manifesto.

The E-Levy began on Sunday, May 1, 2022 amidst a few complaints of wrong charges on the electronic transactions, of which the Ghana Revenue Authority – the collection body – has acknowleged and assured the general public it will remedy the situation.

However, this E-Levy has been described by the 2020 NDC Presidential candidate, John Dramani Mahama, as a “repressive tax”.

Mr. Mahama has pledged to repeal the E-Levy when voted into power.

“A new National Democratic Congress government, God willing and with the votes of the sovereign people of Ghana – in 2025 – will repeal the E-Levy Act. Even as this government remains fixated with taxing their way out of economic mismanagement, the Akufo-Addo government has been wasteful. They have failed to demonstrate prudence in public financial management. The people of Ghana cannot be called upon to pay more taxes only for the accruing money belonging to the people of Ghana, to be dubiously and wastefully shared among family and friends through various fraudulent procurement practices”, he said while delivering a public lecture on the topic “Ghana at a crossroads” on Monday, May 2.

Yaw Buaben Asamoa, discussing the issue on Peace FM’s morning show “Kokrokoo”, exposed Mr. Mahama and his party.

According to him, the opposition party would have introduced the E-Levy if they had won the 2020 elections since this new tax was implicitly stated in their manifesto.

“It’s in the 2020 manifesto that if they had come into power, they would introduce a uniform tax on all electronic transactions,” he said, hence questioning “if this is not E-Levy, then it’s NDC levy or NDC special tax. What’s the essence of this special tax?”

He also added that the former President wouldn’t have only introduced E-Levy but also “increased it” from the 1.5% charge by the incumbent government.

He asked Ghanaians to ignore Mahama’s promise, stressing, “if Mahama or any NDC member tells you they will cancel E-Levy, it’s a 419”.