The former Finance Minister, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, has said the Akufo-Addo government has forced the electronic transfer levy (E-levy) on Ghanaians because he turned a deaf ear to wise counsel from economic experts such as himself.

On his Facebook page the morning after the E-levy was passed, the former Bank of Ghana Governor said, “The NPP has progressed in their passage of the unpopular e-levy bill.

“May it be on record that despite the hardship of the Ghanaian people and disaffection for the e-levy, the NPP ignored these concerns and added to our tax burden.”

There have been a lot of reactions by economic experts that the tax will burden Ghanaians.

Some have said it will move the country back to the days of people using a lot of cash.

Economic experts like Dr Kwabena Duffuor have, in the past, offered several suggestions for several alternatives to the controversial E-levy.

In February last year, the former Governor of the central bank, Dr Duffuor, said, “Currently in Ghana, foreign interests are largely the main beneficiaries of our extractive sector at the expense of Ghanaians who benefit from very little revenue from our natural resources”.

He added, “We must start looking at the sector we have ignored over the years – the extractive sector. A well-managed natural resources centre has emerged as the safest route to prosperity in many developed countries like the USA, UK and Germany.

“We must go back and renegotiate our mining agreements for higher revenues rather than stick to colonial agreements to the detriment of our people”.