Ben Ephson
Fear of the E-Levy retaining the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in power in 2024 could be the factor pushing the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to kick against its passage, the Managing Editor of the Daily Dispatch Newspaper, Ben Ephson, has suggested.
He said the extent to which the opposition NDC is resisting the passage of the bill is baffling, Star FM quoted him as saying.
“I’m tempted to believe that the NDC suspects that with the benefits of E-Levy, Ghanaians will say that things like roads and schools have become better so I will vote for the NPP when I go to the polls in 2024.
“The way the E-Levy is structured. In two and a half years time, the NPP are going to show Ghanaians what they used the E-Levy for,” he told Morning Starr host Francis Abban yesterday.
The comment comes on the back of the clergy’s visit to former President John Mahama to reportedly, among other things, appeal to him and NDC MPs to help government pass the controversial bill.
Meanwhile, the Member of Parliament for New Juaben South, Michael Okyere Baafi, has asked Ghanaians to change their mobile network if they want to reduce the impact of the E-Levy, if it is passed.
“You are the one who pays the levy so for instance, if you are sending GH¢200 to your child at OPASS, you won’t pay tax on the first GH¢100, so the first GH¢100 is free. The GH¢100 left is what you will pay the E-Levy on. The one sending is the one who will pay the levy. Your child who is receiving will not pay anything. The telecommunication companies in Ghana are many. We have MTN, Vodafone and AirtelTigo. For MTN, they charge, Vodafone doesn’t charge so if you think MTN is charging too much just migrate to Vodafone. Simple.”
The lawmaker said this during a town hall meeting with market women and taxi drivers on the E-Levy in Koforidua on Monday, February 14, 2022. The engagement was to explain in details the nexus of the E-Levy Bill and its benefits to accelerated development.
The MP had earlier warned that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) could ask government to cancel Free Senior High School Policy as part of the conditionalities should Ghana run to the Bretton Wood institution for support.
“If we don’t pay the E-Levy and we go to the World Bank or the IMF for loans, they will ask Akufo-Addo to cancel the Free SHS which will affect your children so you must all accept the E-Levy and pay it so it helps all of us,” Okyere Baafi told members of his constituency.
The E-Levy has given the NDC sleepless nights since it was mooted; various of modes of resistance having been embarked upon to date.
The last open resistance took the form of a demonstration in the streets of Accra during which the leadership of the NDC stated that they would not allow the bill to be passed.
Former General Secretary Asiedu Nketia reportedly called for violence should the bill be passed.
The threat to stage a coup should it be passed has led to the arrest and charging of an NDC supporter.