Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Mahama has assured Ghanaians that he will abolish the 1% Electronic Levy (E-levy) when elected President.
Speaking at the 75th New Year school event at the University of Ghana, he reiterated the levy was a burden.
“This is an inequitable tax, it’s not fair and prevents people from the uptake of moving towards a cashless society and so when NDC comes we would remove that tax,” he said.
Mr Mahama had earlier said the NDC is not against the principle of taxation, however, they are opposed to burdensome levies like the E-levy.
Government commenced the implementation of the controversial levy on May 1, 2022, despite widespread condemnation of the tax policy.
The levy was reduced from 1.75% to 1.5% after several protests led by the opposition party, its Members in Parliament and some civil society groups.
Government had hoped to rake in about GH¢7 billion from the collection of the 1.5% levy on mobile money and other electronic transactions, but the figure was revised downwards to about GH¢4 billion.
The NDC described the levy as double taxation and counterproductive but the government insisted that, it was a burden-sharing initiative to shore up internal revenue generation instead of depending on foreign aid.