Ofori-Atta’s case of monetary catastrophe without e-Levy is a long way from truth – Economist

An Economist with the University of Ghana Business School, Lord Mensah has discarded claims that the country is headed for doom without the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-levy).

According to him, the country would definitely thrive without the e-levy.

Speaking in an interview on Joy FM’s GhanaConnect on Friday, Professor Mensah said the Finance Minister’s assertion that “there will be an economic disaster if e-levy fails to go through” is far from the truth.

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 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 her economic fortunes; hence, Ghanaians should be passionate about the policy as “it will give us about ¢6.9 billion.”

But Prof. Mensah stressed that the e-levy, “whether passed or not will not have much impact on this economy.” This, he said is because the expenditure of the economy has been increased by ¢30 billion and over, adding, the revenue of the economy would also increase by the same margin.

He noted that the e-levy would only create some kind of ‘political free space in spending’ hence the push for it to be approved.

“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 said.