Accept E-Levy For Pay Rise – Ofori-Atta To Ghanaians

Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, has said the proposed tax on electronic transactions popularly known as E-Levy, will offer government opportunity to generate revenue to meet public sector workers’ demand for a pay rise.

“I look at teachers and civil servants for example, and I will be the first to admit that the salaries are indecent. Nobody will argue with that. At the same time, it is 60% of all the revenue we collect from 700,000 people that [goes into salary payment], that is also a fact,” he stated.

Speaking at a town hall meeting recently at Wa in the Upper West Region, the Finance Minister said even though it was legitimate for workers to demand an increase in pay, the reality is that there is no money to meet that demand.

According to him, any increase in salary without a corresponding increase in revenue generation will put the biggest squeeze on government finances.

“So yes, there is a legitimate demand for more and there is a legitimate reality that there is no money. So what do we do as a society?” he quizzed and added that the issue now is for more income to be generated domestically, hence the introduction of E-Levy.

He reiterated calls on Ghanaians to support the government’s proposed tax on electronic transactions, noting that the government needs the money to take care of critical expenditure, including the financing of infrastructure and job creation.