Government must step up public education on E-Levy – Economist

Ghanaians needed to be educated on the electronic direct debit policy because what the government was trying to achieve was poorly understood by the public.
Reverend Dr Mensah, who is also the presiding bishop of Christ White House Chapel International, said during the 2022 economic policy and budget analyzes presented to Parliament by the Minister of Finance on the Industrial News dialogue platform Hub Boardroom of the Tema regional office of the Ghanaian News Agency.

The Industrial News Hub Boardroom Dialogue is a media think tank platform for state and non-state and commercial operators to communicate with the world.
Reverend Mensah said, “The 1.75% E-Levy has a lot more to do when a person is transacting from their mobile wallet to other electronic transactions, so it’s not like when you go. withdraw money from your mobile wallet. then they will charge you 1.75.
He explained that “the E-Levy was only about electronic transactions such as transferring money from his bank account to his mobile money wallet and vice versa, further explaining that buying something on the internet and making a payment would be applied, among others. .
“If I sell something on the internet it will apply, so I don’t know why the government has allowed the public to have a different understanding and the government is too gradually embracing it, but in fact it’s not of the normal momo that we do. ”.
Reverend Dr Mensah expressed concern over the lack of social education on budget matters, noting that currently all information the public receives is political information “we don’t have the real economic information that will help. to educate the public ”.
He questioned why the finance ministry allowed the public, especially politicians from the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the main opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), to put a spin on it. interpretation of the E-Levy.
Responding to whether the E-Levy would derail Ghana’s gains towards a cashless system, he said the government was smart and ahead of development to generate revenue.
He said the world was moving from a normal traditional economy to a more digital one, so everything would be done on the internet, adding that “if the government wants to rely on the traditional system of income generation it is likely that Ghana will get nothing at all because people would decide to do business only online to avoid paying taxes.
“If I can sell all of my office equipment online, I won’t physically sell it for the government to tax me, so the government wants to make a smart decision in front of us and make sure that if everyone migrates from the traditional economy to a digital economy, the government is also waiting for us and I believe that this is a very intelligent way of planning and which will help the government, ”he added.
Reverend Dr Mensah added that the accuracy of obtaining e-tax revenue was ensured as there would be no human interference, which he said would help tackle corrupt practices associated with collecting revenue.
Mr. Francis Ameeibor, Regional Director of GNA Tema, explained that the Industrial News Hub board dialogue platform was part of a larger goal of the agency to revamp its operations.
He said that, under the leadership of Mr. Albert Kofi Owusu, the agency has embarked on a process of reorganizing its news gathering operations, towards the production of digital news content and the acquisition of digital news. ‘modern digital equipment to facilitate the rapid transmission of stories from the field.
He said that GNA was poised to be the source of information on Ghana’s investment and industrialization dynamics, its economic and tourism potential through exchanging stories with its international partners, and Tema serving industrial city, GNA Tema Industrial News Hub Boardroom Dialogue Platform, is essential as we move forward.
Mr. Ameyibor said as a new industrial hub: “GNA-Tema Regional Office” we saw the need to involve those who understand the economy to help us educate the population as part of our contribution to good governance “.