Lawyer and Senior Vice President for IMANI-Africa, Kofi Bentil says Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has always been against the introduction of the e-levy, hence his pledge to abolish it should he be voted into power.
This follows some public perception that the promise to abolish the e-Levy is to gain popularity and secure more votes during the general elections.
Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile, Lawyer Bentil argued that the constitutional authority of a vice president is that of an assistant to the president.
This makes it impossible for the vice president to implement or reject policies.
“I think if you see the utterances of this person before and his actions and utterances after you can get exactly where he is going. Let me take e-levy for example, clearly he was against it because he made utterances before and then a decision is made by his boss that ‘we are going to go this way’.
“Instruction was given to the Finance Minister and when people talk about why he didn’t resign, see when it is not your right to make decisions and the person whose right it is to make decisions makes it, you don’t have a right to say you are going to resign. You have done your job.”
Mr. Bentil further explained that due to Dr. Bawumia’s opposition to taxes on electronic financial transactions, he advocated for the exemption of e-levy on one’s first GH₵100 transaction which was approved by government.
“He stayed there and fought for the GH₵100 exemption. That is the driver-mate thing that people don’t seem to understand.
“The ultimate decision is that we are going to do e-levy and it is done against his express objection but then he says ‘ok, you are going to do it but can you exempt GH₵100?’. He fights for it and gets that. That is what you get by staying there and that is what he meant by being a mate. You don’t make the decision but you influence it. Now, they could have refused that too but at least he got that.
“When you give your ideas and advise and it is not taken, you cannot be blamed. It is the person responsible who should answer for it,” he stressed.
The controversial e-levy was introduced in 2022, after numerous objection from the public and various civil society organisations.
But delivering his first major address to the nation after his election as NPP’s flagbearer, Dr. Bawumia minced no words in declaring his intention to abolish e-levy as President.
Dr Bawumia added that his bid for a digital and cashless Ghana will be significantly boosted if e-levy is abolished.
“To move towards a cashless economy, however, we have to encourage the population to use electronic channels payment. To accomplish this, there will be no taxes on digital payments under my administration. The e-levy will therefore, be abolished,” he said on Wednesday, February 7.
Dr. Bawumia also announced that as part of a new tax regime by his government, he will also abolish the emission tax, tax on betting as well as the proposed 15% VAT on electricity tariffs, if it is in existence by January 2025.
He also announced that his government would introduce a friendly, flat tax regime for Ghana, which will boost businesses, particularly small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs).
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