Member of Parliament for Efutu, Alexander Afenyo Markin says the Electronic Transaction Levey (e-levy) is the first major tax the Akufo-Addo government has introduced since taking power in 2016.

According to him, the focus of government - pre covid, covid and post covid - has always been to reduce the burden of the ordinary Ghanaian, hence the reduction in some taxes, scrapping of others and the introduction of policies like Free SHS.

"Until the introduction of the e-levy, the NPP government had not done any major introduction of taxation. The first major fiscal policy decision in terms of taxation is e-levy. Introducing the e-levy was a major decison taken by government to help get revenue to support our budget."

"But we are not getting the needed revenue, goverment has been opened to say that because of this situation we need to rely on an external party, that is the IMF. Is it wrong going there? No, it depends on the conditions taking you there."

The e-ley which imposes a 1.5% tax on electronic transfers was implemented on May1.

Some Ghanaians welcomed the idea while others were skeptical of paying the levy.

However prior to its implementation government had noted that introducing the e-levy was part of the homegrown measures taken to raise funds for the country.

But in June, a leading member of government, Gabby Otchere Darko revealed that the e-levy had failed to meet government's expectations. 

He stated in a tweet that the e-levy had generated less than ¢60 million, close to two months of its implementation.

Days later, government announced its decision to go for an IMF bailout.

Mr Afenyo-Markin on Newsfile stated that government opting for an IMF bailout does not mean the government failed in its operations.

He explained that aside from the policies introduced, the goverment undertook a banking sector clean up, paid more subsidies to farmers among others and also ensured debts left by previous governments did not affect the populace.

"It is not the case that this goverment folded its arms, has incurred debt and all that. No, that is not the argument. If you look at all the numbers pre-covid, we were doing better. We were compelled to rely on our own internal policies, believing that we were going to have a smooth ride."

Mr Afenyo-Markins believes that the IMF will not impose its policies on the country but rather seek to understand the policies goverment want to undertake and offer a reliable financial programme.

Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry has disclosed that government will not terminate the 1.5% levy on electronic transactions, despite its application to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for economic assistance.

This was contained in a statement from the Ministry on Tuesday, addressing key questions regarding government’s ongoing engagement with the Fund.

Regarding the controversial levy, the Ministry explained that government will add the proceeds from the levy to the support from the IMF to salvage the economy.

Addressing the question of whether the levy will be scrapped, the Ministry said, “NO. The IMF lending to Ghana will be for balance of payments support (i.e. to shore up the international reserves).

“Government is committed to ensuring the smooth operationalisation of all taxes including the e-levy to ensure that in addition to the IMF’s resources, government can continue to support its developmental goals on its own while ensuring that tax-to-GPD ratio increases to the peer range of 16%-18%”.