E-levy Will Be A Very Influential Tax Handle – Dr John Kumah

Deputy Finance Minister, Dr John Kumah, says he is very happy Ghana succeeded in passing the E-levy.

According to him, in the not-so-distant future, the e-levy would become a very important tax handle for the country.

He said this was due to the rapid digitalisation of the economy and the gradual acceptance of the tax handle by Ghanaians going forward.

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express Business Edition on Friday, he expressed optimism that when the e-levy finally becomes viewed as a normal feature of the digital economy, the country would begin to reap the reward.

“I am still very happy that Ghana managed to pass the e-levy.  It’s going to be a very influential tax handle for our country going into the future. Because whether you like it or not the normal economy as we know it is shifting into digitalisation, and obviously in future things will normalise,” he said.

He said “We saw the huge resistance to the e-levy and its impact in its implementation, but if you observe the data from June, a month after it started picking up by 8 per cent, the following month it’s going up by 10 per cent and gradually people will come home to accept it and I believe we will see the impact.”

The passage of the e-levy had faced stiff resistance from Minority Members of Parliament and the general public who had described the tax measure as an “insensitive” tax measure considering the fact that it was introduced during an economic downturn following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Following its passage, the e-levy which was projected to accrue some ?600 million a month only managed to accrue less than ?60 million in revenue for the month of May, 2022, that is, only 9 per cent of expected revenue.

According to Dr Kumah, though the tax measure had faced some challenges with its implementation, he’s optimistic that following its full implementation, the e-levy will begin to match its expected revenue.

“Obviously, there are a number of challenges and you know we did not also implement in full, we had to do stages of implementation before finally…even now as we speak it’s not all the stakeholders who are on the common platform, and even it is not all the transactions that are supposed to go through the common API that are currently going through. So we still have challenges in the first year of implementation. But like I said, I am very happy that we have that tax handle which in time when we are able to improve and make the necessary reviews and changes we will see the impact,” he said.