Time to fund development from within — Ofori-Atta

The Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, has given an assurance that the actualisation of the new tax measure, the Electronic Levy (E-levy), remains very important to support the country’s debt management, build infrastructure and ensure youth employment.

Speaking at a townhall meeting on the E-Levy at the Sekondi Takoradi Youth Hall for residents of the Western and Central regions, the Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, said “the time has come for us to collect our own money to enable us to do what we intend to do”.

He said the government had proposed the 1.75 per cent on electronic cash transfers to help reduce the country’s debt and deficit, while enabling it to fund the growing demands of the Ghanaian people.

The E-Levy

At the meeting, which was the second, the government team took time to explain the areas the E-levy covers, which are mobile money transfers between accounts on the same electronic money issuer (EMI) and mobile money transfer from an account on one EMI to a recipient on another EMI.

The affected areas also include transfers from bank accounts to mobile accounts and bank transfer on a digital platform or application, which originated from a bank account belonging to an individual.

The Minister of Information, Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah; a Deputy Minister of Energy, Mr Andrew Egyapa Mercer, and the ministers of the Western and Central regions, Mr Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah and Mrs Justina Marigold Assan, respectively took turns to support the finance Minister to explain the policy decision.

The people asked questions to clear their fear that there would be double taxation and also seek assurance that the taxes collected would be put to good use.

Unemployment

The Finance Minister said issues of employment were not to be toyed with, saying “with the E-Levy, we will greatly improve our employment drive to ensure that many are captured, improve infrastructure and pay our debts.”

He argued that the time had come for Ghanaians to step up their contribution towards paying for the demands they made.

Mr Ofori-Atta explained that as a sovereign country, it was important “to be the master of its own destiny by mobilising more local resources to pay for the things we demand”.

He said the days when the country looked to international partners for bailout or fund development agenda were over.

“We are the ones who have to mobilise our own resources to fund the development we want. Our sovereignty and dignity require that we look inward and see how to pay up and make the Ghanaian vision a reality,” the finance minister said.

“Our plea is to let you know that we are a country with manifest destiny and we should, in whatever way we can, play our roles and that in our minds is through the new tax