The Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council (GPCC) has waded into the controversial Electronic transfer levy (E-levy) debate urging the government to check misappropriation and misapplication of public funds rather than pushing through the levy.
Noting that the government loses a lot of revenue through such nefarious acts as recorded in various reports of the Auditor-General, the Council said government would rake in more if it plugged the loopholes that drain the public purse.
General Secretary of the Council, Reverend Emmanuel Teimah Barrigah who spoke to Citi News on the Council’s position said “if we lose GH¢12 billion through the misapplication, misappropriation and embezzlement of public funds and we are looking for GH¢6 billion from E-levy, why don’t we just take steps to prevent such wastages?”
“If this is not done, even monies collected through E-levy will be wasted. Without collecting the E-levy in the first place, when all loopholes are plugged, we can save a considerable amount of money to carry out the developmental projects government will like to embark on.”
The 1.75% e-levy, now pegged at 1.5%, was introduced by the government in the 2022 Budget on basic transactions related to digital payments and electronic platform transactions.
It is to apply to electronic transactions that are more than GH¢100 on a daily basis.
Government expects the levy to provide an extra GH¢6.9 billion to execute developmental projects in 2022.
According to the budget, 16.7 percent of the yield from the levy, will be used to support road infrastructure development.
Ten percent of the 0.25 percentage points, i.e. 1.67% of the yield from the levy, would be dedicated to improvements in public transportation, including the purchase of buses.
