The controversial electronic transaction levy (E-levy) introduced in the 2022 budget has been reduced to 1.5% from the initial 1.75%, according to Deputy Majority Leader, Alex Afenyo-Markin.
The member of the Majority leadership in Parliament disclosed that the reduction is captured in a revised 2022 budget submitted to the House on Tuesday, November 30, 2021.
“…we know that government has shifted from 1.75 to 1.5,” he said on PM Express on Tuesday evening.
The E-levy has been among the contentious proposals in the 2022 budget with many analysts fearing that it would discourage mobile money transactions and undo progress towards making the economy cash-lite.
Renowned economist at the University of Ghana, Prof Godfred Alufar Bokpin, is among the many analysts who have thumbed down the E-levy tax on mobile money transactions.
Although the tax will apply to other forms of electronic transactions, Prof Bokpin singled out mobile money (momo) transactions and argues that such a tax will widen the already yawning inequality gap.
Proponents of the levy say it will reduce government borrowing for infrastructural projects.
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A one-sided Parliament approved the widely criticised budget statement presented to Parliament by Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, on November 17, 2021, in the absence of Minority MPs who declined to participate in the voting process.
While the Minority stayed out, the Finance Minister re-submitted a revised version of his budget and got the unanimous approval of all 138 Majority MPs, including that of Deputy Speaker and Majority MP for Bekwai, who was presiding as Speaker in the absence of Alban Bagbin.
The events in Parliament on Tuesday nullified a previous rejection of the initial budget statement on Friday, November 26, 2021 – also by a one-sided Parliament of Minority MPs.