President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has reiterated the need for Ghanaians to accept the controversial electronic levy.
He said the levy will provide an avenue to widen the tax net and hence ensure development for the country.
Making a case for the unpopular tax, the President said the country can only achieve its goal of a Ghana Beyond Aid if more citizens contribute their quota.
Delivering the keynote address at the 2022 National Labour Conference at Kwahu- Nkwatia in the Eastern Region, Nana Akufo-Addo said the percentage of Ghanaians paying direct taxes is woefully inadequate and efforts must be made to bridge the gap.
“We cannot continue to allow less than 10%, specifically 7.8%, that is, 2.4 million people of the population to carry the direct tax burden of 30.8 million people. We must provide an opportunity for every Ghanaian to contribute towards nation building.”
“The proposed e-levy is such an innovative fiscal measure which will help improve our tax to GDP ratio on an equitable basis. I believe strongly that it is in the public interest that it should be enacted into law. We cannot continue to live on foreign savings,” he noted.
The President said the E-levy will provide the opportunity for every Ghanaian to contribute towards nation building, stressing that Ghanaians must accept the implications of Ghana beyond aid.
“It is time we accepted the full implications of our goal of Ghana beyond aid and design our fiscal profile accordingly. This will be one of the surest ways of expanding the tax base for mobilizing our own resources,” he said.
In a related development, a Deputy Minister of Finance John Kumah has denied reports that the government will not be able to pay salaries in the next 3 months.
Speaking in an interview on Accra based Citi FM, John Kumah said at even at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when economic activities stalled, the government was able to pay salaries.
“It is not true. Even when COVID-19 hit us hard, and we were struggling as a country, we still managed to pay all public workers and on time. In January this year, workers were paid on time. We are hopeful that of February will be paid on time.”
The Speaker of Parliament made this disclosure last week in parliament attributing it to his sources.
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