We must all support E-levy for national development - Dan Botwe

The Local Government Minister, Mr. Dan Kwaku Botwe, has urged Ghanaians to sacrifice to support the E-levy to achieve the desired national development and job creation opportunities.

He explained that the socioeconomic problems of the country required sustainable revenue generation strategies to tackle, noting that the government has no intention to make life difficult for the people of Ghana.

"The E-Levy is a thought-through budget proposal to meet the huge demands of development," he noted.

He said the government, therefore, needed the support and understanding of the public to realise the objectives of the E-Levy for the benefit of Ghanaians.

He refuted claims that the E-Levy was a bad policy, which would make the Government unpopular.

Mr. Botwe, who is also the Member of Parliament for Okere, said this during a mini durbar to climax the Annual Odwira Festival of the chiefs and people of Adukrom in the Okere District of the Eastern Region.

Revenue mobilisation

He said the government needed more revenue to meet the high demands of development, citing the huge numbers of graduates from the universities without jobs, who needed government's intervention.

"The demand for good roads, schools, and hospitals amidst the huge burden of ensuring that there are job opportunities for the young ones far outweigh similar demands in my days as a youth and we, as a people must all come to that realisation".

The Government, in the 2022 Budget and Economic Policy presented to Parliament, announced the proposed 1.75 per cent Electronic Transaction Levy (E-levy), on mobile money payments, bank transfers, merchant payments and inward remittances.

However, this has not gone down well with a cross section of the public.

While many have described it as a double taxation of the already burdened taxpayer, others have questioned its rationale in propelling national development when the combined revenue of oil, gold and cocoa, has not been utilised judiciously for the same purposes.

Education

Still at the durbar, Mr. Botwe called on the traditional authorities to pay more attention on education to ensure that no child was left behind.

He pledged GH₵20,000 on behalf of the Master Dako Foundation, an establishment in honour of his late father, towards the Adukrom Education Fund.

Earlier, Nana tutu Kono, the Chief of Adukrom, announced that the Traditional Council and stakeholders in education had instituted an Education Fund to improve standards and access to education in the area.