Scrap e-Levy to stop armed robbing poor Ghaianans – Prof. Bokpin to Akufo-Addo

Professor of Finance at the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS), Prof. Godfred Bokpin has called on Akufo-Addo Administration to immediately see reason and scrap the unbearable Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy), accusing government machinery of robbing the poor mobile money user.

The economist reiterated this call on Wednesday, July 13, while commenting on the findings of the Ghana Afrobarometer R9 Survey disseminated by the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana).

From the survey, 67% of Ghanaians “strongly disapprove” of the levy. While only two in 10 (19%) endorse the new tax, a similar proportion (76%) think the e-levy is a bad idea because it increases the tax burden on the poor and ordinary citizens.

Giving his thoughts on the findings, Prof. Godfred Bokpin stressed that the findings is a true reflection of the minds and hearts of Ghanaians regarding the controversial levy.

According to him, it is important that government makes reconsideration to withdraw the tax saying government should not become robbing Ghanaians in its bid to raise more domestic revenue.

“Broadly the views represent Ghana and I’m sure we can all associate with the findings. I believe this is a wake-up call to government because when you see these things it means government is losing the confidence of the people. If this was done a week ago I’m sure the findings would have been worse,” the Economist said.

Prof. Godfred Bokpin continued, “By design, E-Levy was poorly designed because there is a way of bypass. This is not a tax handle you introduce at this time. I still think that the government needs to withdraw. The state in its quest to raise more money should not become an armed robber.

“We are not saying government should not generate more taxes. The point is that there are other progressive tax handles that we can use to raise more money without burdening the few”.