Deputy Minister of Finance, John Ampontuah Kumah has urged all well-meaning Ghanaians to ignore the unsavoury and doubtful commentaries peddled by the opposition National Democratic Congrese (NDC) elements on the rollout of the Electronic Transfer Levy, commonly called E-levy.
According to him, the government will on May 1, 2022, fully rollout the E-Levy.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Ejisu explained that already, the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has put in place the required infrastructure to seamlessly interface with that of the Telcos for the smooth rollout of the levy on Sunday May 1, 2022.
“Contrary to some naysayers’ expectations, the GRA, Ministry of Finance, and the Telcos have had fruitful deliberations over the levy’s implementation these past weeks. The deliberations among the various stakeholders have helped address all potential implementation concerns. Indeed, the extensive deliberations climaxed on Wednesday 27th April 2022, when the final roadmap for implementation was agreed on,” the deputy minister indicated.
He noted that the government’s commitment to a smooth implementation of the levy has not waned, ‘albeit the needless and often exaggerated propaganda raised by key members of the NDC.’
According to him, government is highly optimistic that the implementation of the levy will not suffer rollout challenges due to the thorough implementation review process.
He announced that a hotline will be put out to help address the challenges users will face in the roll out of the levy.
“The GRA and the telcos have agreed on various implementation modalities. Therefore, it is expected that all teething glitches will be identified, recognized and dealt with accordingly and quickly. All onnet transactions will be onboarded by the Telecos starting from May 1st while a full integration of their systems will be completed in due course.
“The government urges all well-meaning Ghanaians to ignore the unsavoury and doubtful commentaries peddled by the NDC elements on the levy’s rollout. Many of them, at best, are hoping and praying that the novel revenue measure never sees the light of day due to the positive impact the proceeds from this revenue measure will be used for,” he said.
He noted that government remains determined to fully deploy the levy for the betterment of Ghana, calling on Ghanaians to help build the nation together.
By Vincent Kubi