The Opposition National Democratic Congress, Member of Parliament for Builsa South, Clement Apaak has given a strong indication that the NDC will not abolish the controversial e-levy if passed by Parliament.
Apaak failed to answer whether the opposition NDC will want to maintain the e-levy or scrap it should they win power in 2024.
According to him, his reason being that the bill is yet to be passed.
Speaking on Okay FM on Wednesday, he insisted the NDC cannot adopt a position on whether it’ll be maintained or not.
He lamented that “The levy has not been passed neither have we come to power. We are talking about today, we cannot talk about the future today. We’ve not gone there, we are not the ones in government. We cannot dwell on conjecture and what we know is that it is unjustified”.
His narration on Okay fm with the host below;
Kwame Nkrumah Tikesie: Two quick questions; assuming the E-Levy is passed, and NDC wins the next elections, will you (NDC) abolish same?
Dr. Clement Apaak (NDC MP): We’re not yet there. It’s yet to be passed, and we’re also yet to win power so l can’t speak about it.
Tikesie: If you’re against E-Levy, you should be able to say boldly that when you win power, you’ll abolish it or?
Apaak: We are not yet there.
Clement Apaak has said it is still a wonder why the government is bent on passing the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-levy), when a litany of viable options of raising revenues have been proposed by the biggest opposition party; the National Democratic Congress (NDC), some Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and other well-meaning finance-oriented individuals and groups.
He described the proposed tax as wildly unpopular and high against the digitalization drive of the country, adding that the government’s desperation is brought to bear considering the circumvention of pre-existing general and tax laws as well as processes and procedures in Parliament.
He wondered why the government was fixated on the “extortionist scheme” which would only bring the government some estimated GHC7 billion when in the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy, the government overall revenue estimate is worth over GHC140 billion.
He claimed the government’s implied narrative that ‘E-Levy’ would address the myriad of challenges facing the country is inaccurate asking, “what at all does the government want? What is the agenda?”
He said the Minority in Parliament would not accept anything short of an entire abdication of the E-levy explaining the MPs have the support of the NDC and many Ghanaians who are incensed about the imposition of taxes on electronic transactions.
– BY Daniel Bampoe