Economist Prof. Ebo Turkson has urged the Finance Minister to use the Mid-Year Budget presentation to announce a suspension of the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy).

The levy which was introduced in the 2022 budget was expected to rake in about ¢6 billion, but delays in passing the policy into law forced government to reduce the levy to 1.5% from 1.75%.

In June this year, a close associate of the president Gabby Octhere-Darko announced that the levy has underperformed bringing in only 10% of the projected revenue of ¢600 million.

Speaking on the issue on PM EXPRESS on the Joy News Channel, Prof. Turkson said government should scrap the levy to encourage more usage of the mobile money platform after which government can tax the telcos.

“I don’t think the e-levy is something we should look at. I am expecting the Finance Minister to remove the e-levy in the Mid-Year Budget”, he said.

According to him, the drop in the expected revenue from the e-levy clearly shows that consumers were avoiding electronic transfer of money, a situation that could also affect the revenue streams of telecom firms.

“The telcos when they have a drop in the number of consumers has implications for their profitability. If the government is again going to tax their profits, it means that the government is going to make less taxes”.

Prof. Turkson argued that it will be economically wise to rather encourage more people to use the digital platform payments to rake in more profits for telcos for government to tax the telcos.

Ahead of a meeting with some staff from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Prof. Turkson advised government to immediately pursue policies that will change structural arrangement of Ghana’s economy by investing in industry and agriculture.

 According him, investing in these areas will help reduce Ghana’s reliance on imports of basic items such as food.

This, he said will help reduce the country’s fiscal deficit to below 5%, while growing the economy above 5%.

Prof. Turkson warned that Ghana risks going to the IMF in the future if the current economic structure is not changed.