The Deputy Minority Leader, James Klutse Avedzi, wants the Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, to devise innovative strategies to shore up revenues instead of the electronic transfer levy.
According to him, the e-levy is a lazy approach to taxation especially when there are numerous income earners outside the tax net.
The Member of Parliament for Ketu North made these comments when he addressed the media after parliament adjourned sittings following the brawl that characterized the debate on the e-levy.
He insisted that his caucus is resolved to go whatever length to oppose the e-levy.
“Who must pay direct tax to the government? Effectively, it is only 2.4 million Ghanaians who pay taxes now, and about 6.8 million Ghanaians are not paying taxes yet they earn income. So it is for the Finance Ministry to go after these people who earn income so that they pay the appropriate tax to the government.”
“Why is Ken Ofori-Atta not going that way? He wants to sit in the comfort of his office with air-conditioning and tax the lazy way.”
The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, has also described the controversial e-levy bill as ‘technically incompetent’.
He said it was wrong for the bill to suggest that for every transfer of above GHS 100, the sender will be charged, and in cases where the same amount is transferred to different people that sender will be charged multiple times.
“Their grand deception will fail. I have technical competence in the telecom and communications sector. What the telcos are charging is fees and not transactions. The government is deceiving them to lower their fee charges by 0.25% and that makes up for the 1.75% they want to introduce.”
“No telco charges on transactions. They only charge transaction fees of 1% of transfers. I think that technically, this bill is incompetent and they must consult well,” he said.
