Respected Economist, Prof Lord Mensah, has said a claim by the Finance Minister that Ghana will be headed for economic disaster if E-levy fails to pass is not backed by facts.
According to the Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana Business School, the economy will not see any major change if the electronic tax is passed.
“Whether passed or not [E-levy] will not have much impact on this economy,” he said Friday.
According to him, the government’s expenditure has been increased by GH¢30 billion and over, hence the expected revenue from E-Levy, some GH¢6.9 billion, would not adequately cushion the effects of the increased expenditure.
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It is Prof Mensah’s view that the E-levy would merely give the government the opportunity to spend even more, what he termed a ‘political free space in spending’.
“Looking at the expenditure side of the budget, I mean clearly, you would see that there are some items that have been increased, but then also there is an item called others, which is the 7 billion.
“Let’s say that is swallowing the proceeds from the E-levy. Now if you take this into perspective, it gives you the picture that the E-levy is something that is coming to, excuse my language, promote that kind of political free-spending,” he told Joy FM’s Ghana Connect on Friday, January 28, 2022.
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta at a Town Hall meeting on the e-levy held on Thursday, indicated that a dire economic consequence awaits Ghana if the E-Levy Bill fails to pass.
He stressed that economic gains made by the government in recent years will stall if Ghanaians do not support the initiative.
“If we don’t do this E-levy, we are just pushing ourselves in a way that would potentially end up in such a disaster. There was a warning of that because last week was a very difficult week for the country,” he said.
The Finance Minister pointed out that the country needs the levy to increase the economic fortunes of the country.