General Secretary of the ruling New Patriotic Party(NPP), John Boadu, has panned the Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr, for what the former considers as "trivializing" the controversial Electronic Transaction tax system (E-levy).
Kwesi Pratt, contributing to a panel discussion on Peace FM's morning show 'Kokrokoo' wondered why the e-levy seems to have suddenly become the panacea to all of Ghana's economic problems as espoused by members of ruling party.
"Now, our leaders are overdoing this. They say without the e-levy, farmers won't get fertilizer. They claim without the e-levy, government workers cannot be paid. There will be no roads if the e-levy isn't implemented. They claim without the e-levy, there will be no water accessibility . . . without the e-levy, health delivery will reduce. I mean how?...So, now the e-levy has become the answer to every problem''.
''If you have a headache, e-levy! If you have leg pains, e-levy!! Stomach pains, e-levy!!! Why?...Now, e-levy has turned into 'akobalm'. Why?''
However, speaking in a one-on-one interview on Peace FM's The Platform programme, John Boadu felt the renowned Journalist was not taking the current economic crises seriously.
"Which people have been saying if there's no e-levy, there won't be schooling (Free SHS)....? it's only him (Kwesi Pratt); he's the only one who exaggerates. Whenever new taxes are being introduced, there are agitations and so there's nothing wrong . . . we should not trivialize our current situation; these are real issues we face as a country," he cautioned.
Listen to him in the video below:
Source: Peacefmonline.com
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Ghana will be 65 years on 6 March, 2022. So here is a 65 year old man who since his birth cannot dualize the two major cities in the country. Accra to Kumasi is still a single lane road with 8 out of the 16 regions using this single lane road to get to the capital, Upper west, upper east, Savannah, north east, northern, Bono, Bono east, Ahafo and Ashanti, not to talk of our 3 neighbouring countries Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. 65 years you can't still link all your regional capitals by tarred roads, 65 years, you have districts that were created 10 years ago and not a single kilometer of tarred road can be found in the whole district, 65 years, you have districts that have no hospital, 65 years, you have regional capitals where aeroplanes can't land, 65 years you still have schools that automatically close when the clouds gather, 65 years , you still have communities that compete with livestock at the community dugout for driving water not fit to flush some people's toilet, 65 years, people still defecate in the open because of lack of places of convenience, 65 years your national capital is one of the most dirtiest . Apart from Nkrumah 1957-1966, Colonel Acheampong 1972-1978 ( he never went for one dollar loan from anybody) operation feed yourself, kpong dam, Tono irrigation dam, won 1978 AFCON for Ghana, stadia in all district capitals in the then upper region, catering rest houses, nurses quaters in some districts up north, lowcsost houses for workers all in 6 years without any loan and Kufuor 2001 -2008 ( health insurance, school feeding program, metro mass transport, 2 new stadia in Tamale and Sekondi, free maternal care for pregnant women, millennium challenge account, started dualization of Kumasi- Accra road, MASLOC , NYEP, private sector boom etc. The rest only added to the numbers with the current one being the worst of them all. His cousin himself has confessed Ghana is hard and that the people are suffering and they intend taxing them more. I can't think far.
John Boadu, hear this. Ghanaians are not against paying taxes. Infact Ghanaians have been paying taxes since the colonial era. Fact is the people can't tell what the existing taxes they pay are used for. We still have bad roads all over the country. There is no region in Ghana that can boast of an all round good roads, we still have school under trees, potable water is still a challenge in many communities, access to health care is nothing to write home about, we still have Ghanaians who go to sleep on empty stomachs, electricity to some communities is still a challenge. Question, where are the monies generated from COCOA, GOLD, TIMBER, BAUXITE and lately OIL including domestic tax revenue. If revenues from all these are not enough to fund government programs, can E-levy fill the revenue shortfall gap? Again why are you relying so much on a tax that can be avoided? Looking at the natural resources God gifted Ghana as against our population, any president who means well for the Ghanaian people can change the fortunes of the country. When you claim to represent the interests of the people based on which they give you the mandate to govern only for you to turn round to represent yourself instead of the people, they will resist paying taxes. Is it a must that government officials must necessarily use V8's with its attendant maintenance cost including high fuel consumption all at the expense of the poor tax payer. If Ghana were your personal business will you buy a V8 for yourself when your children are sitting under trees to learn, will you buy a V8 for yourself when your children have no textbooks to learn, will you buy a V8 for yourself when the roads the V8 will be traveling on are bad, will you buy a V8 for yourself and go to sleep in darkness because you don't have electricity in your home, we have state institutions that go for new vehicles for every single project even though they already have vehicles. If you are a private contractor and you are awarded 10 different projects nationwide, will you buy 10 V8's for each of the project when one V8 can monitor all the 10. The politics of the Nkrumah, Busia and Limann era are gone. The people can easily read in between the lines now. If the position of president, vice president , minister, MMDCE, CEO and MP were positions to occupy by writing exams, you think those currently occupying these positions will be in these offices. How do you convince people who are more intelligent than you. If politicians were to know what the people are thinking, they will run away from their positions. Who should toil to sacrifice for you to come and squander. Nan niama
Kwame Lapaz. Wanted to find out from the proponent of E LEVY what mechanism to TRACK the very poor for the transaction of first gh100 a day for exemption threshold of a person without a personal phone who cannot afford a personal phone and are compelled to use merchants to send gh80 to his son in school in the morning and daughter Gh90 for medicine same day at different vendor points. The wrong assumption of everyone using momo will trigger the transaction on his personal phone is flawed and erroneous. Will I be taxed if I deposited physical gh200 at a vendor on my personal phone at merchant solely to buy data/bundle for myself. If i am depositing physical gh150 on my phone to buy credit and same time depositing another gh150 on my mothers phone no at a vendor point, which of them will attracts E levy? and what criterion to be used by vendor or govt to distinguish for the purposes e levy ? Will I be taxed if I am paying my tight of gh 150 through mom? Tax on TIGHT.