Managing Editor of the Custodian Newspaper, Awudu Mahama, stated that it’s not an option for Ghana to go back to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for relief. According to him, the IMF is bitter like quinine, a medication used to treat malaria.
He noted that it would be unfortunate for Ghana go back to the IMF since it would only grant them an opportunity to control Ghana’s economy.
“Do you want us to take money from someone who will not permit us to employ people and demand we increase taxes due to the loan given us? IMF will ask us to cut down on employment in the public sector and would want us to live by their tenants. They give stringent measures to live by and it is not a place we want to find ourselves in,” he stated.
Awudu Mahama further stated that Bretton Woods institutions always want countries to fall into crisis, hence rushing to them for loans which will heavily burden them (countries) “and that’s what scrapping the e-levy will do to us. They will make us suffer.”
In a discussion on the Editors’ Take Edition of the Happy Morning Show with Samuel Eshun, Awudu Mahama said with Ghana out of the grips of the IMF, the country should not dare fall back into their ice-cold hands.
“We shouldn’t go there again because if we do, we will pay more taxes than the e-levy. Do you remember the condom, cutlass, and kayeyi taxes? All of them were because of IMF loans. IMF is bitter like quinine and we don’t want to taste it again,” he said.
Mr. Mahama applauded government for focusing on raising revenue internally. He also called on Government to use the revenue generated from e-levy judiciously to prevent Ghanaians from losing trust in them.
Ghana’s finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta has announced that the government intends to introduce an electronic transaction levy (e-levy) in the 2022 budget. He said this was to “widen the tax net and rope in the informal sector”.
The proposed levy, which will come into effect on 1 February 2022, is a charge of 1.75% of the value of electronic transactions. It covers mobile money payments, bank transfers, merchant payments and inward remittances. The originator of the transactions will bear the charge except for inward remittances, which will be borne by the recipient. There is an exemption for transactions up to GH¢100 (US$ 16) per day.
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