Popular media personality, Abeiku Aggrey Santana, has expressed disappointment in the vice president, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, for making a case in support of the implementation of the Electronic Transfer Levy Bill (E-Levy).
It would be recalled that in an interview with Peace FM’s Kwame Sefa Kayi sometime in August 2020, Dr Bawumia remarked: “I don’t think Mobile Money should be taxed because most of the people who use the service are poor people, so if you put more taxes on it, they will suffer.”
However, on March 30, 2022, Parliament approved the levy which imposes a 1.5 per cent tax on all electronic and mobile money transfers.
Barely a day after it was passed, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo assented to the bill, making it a law.
A displeased Abeiku Santana making a submission on UTV’s United Showbiz, Saturday could not fathom why the vice president who had previously kicked against the idea would argue in favour of it.
“I am disappointed that the government passed E-Levy and disappointed in the vice president because he was at Peace FM sometime back and said he didn’t see the need to tax MoMo. He wasn’t truthful to us because he was the first person to oppose the bill at that time. He said it wasn’t a good idea but now he has made a U-turn saying the country currently needs it,” he furiously stated.
The broadcaster went ahead to also tackle President Akufo-Addo for spearheading the initiative even to the detriment of Ghanaians.
Speaking further, Abeiku said Akufo-Addo strongly kicked against VAT in 1995 but was comfortable enough to implement the E-Levy which seeks to impose more tax on Ghanaians.
“Nobody is saying we shouldn’t pay tax. The problem is what are those monies meant for tax used for? In 1995 when VAT was introduced, Akufo-Addo vehemently protested against it. He said it will kill us. That was what brought about ‘Kumi Preko’. But Ghanaians did not demonstrate against the E-Levy. The VAT was even lesser than the E-Levy but we haven’t demonstrated.”
Abeiku Santana however, bemoaned what he described as an unfair taxation system in Ghana.
“There is no robust system to determine what the poor and the rich earn so we tax them together. In developed countries, people pay taxes according to what they earn. In Ghana, the poor and the rich pay, the same tax and I don’t think it’s fair. Though taxes are progressive, in Ghana, it’s regressive. The rich must be taxed to pay the poor.”
