Govt’s plan to abolish E-levy, betting tax violates IMF programme – Gideon Boako

The Member of Parliament for Tano North, Dr. Gideon Boako, has raised concerns about the potential introduction of new taxes by the John Dramani Mahama-led government in response to the removal of the betting tax and e-levy.

Dr. Boako’s comments follow statements by Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, the Finance Minister-Designate, who suggested that the Mahama administration would abolish these taxes in its first budget and compensate for the resulting revenue shortfall by implementing expenditure cuts.

Speaking to Citi News, Dr. Boako expressed doubts about the alignment of these proposed measures with the fiscal policies agreed upon with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

He warned that such changes could disrupt the nation’s financial commitments and cautioned that new taxes might not be the best approach to addressing the revenue gap.

“We don’t want a situation whereby you give with your left hand and you take with your right hand. They have to be explicit. If they are cutting the taxes, they cut the taxes, they don’t introduce any new taxes, you cannot cancel or scrap e-levy, scrap betting tax, and go behind and create another tax to fill the gap.

“If they indeed want to scrap e-levy, betting tax, the COVID-19, the emission taxes, the only other thing they can do in order to match up with the debt service to revenue ratio as enshrined in the IMF programme and captured in the debt sustainability analysis is to have another tax introduced through the back door to make up for the shortfall. Other than that they do not have any other room.”