Economist and Political Risk Analyst, Dr Theo Acheampong has called for an exemption of some electronic transaction services from the newly introduced E-levy.

He believes certain essential services like bank to bank transfers, transfers from mobile money wallets to bank accounts, and utility bills should be exempted from the levy.

Speaking on Newsfile on the Joy News channel, Saturday, the Economist argued that for start off point on taxing digital transactions, the 1.75% rate must be reduced.

“I think we need to exclude certain services from the payment of this tax. If you do a bank transfer from your MoMo wallet and vice-versa, I don’t think you should be paying a tax on it.

If you are paying for essential services for example water, electricity, medicals etc we should find a way to be able to take them away from paying this tax and then bank to bank transfers too I don’t think they should be paying this tax,” he argued.

The Economist further urged the government to reduce the rate at which the levy would be charged.

"We should reduce the rate down. I think 1.75% is too high...the rate, in my view, has to come down; possibly 0.5%. Left for me alone, I wouldn’t implement it but if the government wants to go ahead with it, then perhaps we need to look at which services you exclude, the rate and then the trigger point," he told Samson Lardi Anyenini.

According to the Political Risk Analyst, the electronic transaction levy also known as the E-levy is not the best tax decision to be taken by the government.

This he said was because of the current state of Ghana’s economy “especially given the time that we are talking about financial inclusion.”

The levy, since its announcement by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta has been opposed by the minority in parliament and other tax experts stressing that it will exacerbate the economic hardship in the country.