I have heard publicly that the popular Electronic Transaction Levy (E-levy) bill will be used to create jobs and provide road infrastructure across the country. These stated objectives look pleasant to the Ghanaian because they are some of our major problems and for that matter allocation resources to solve them is a hurray.
Hey! Hold ya hope! I tell you to hold ya hope because the bill speaks different from what they say publicly and these are my reasons:
1. The object in the memorandum of the Electronic Transaction Levy bill sees this bill as a measure to improve on government revenue and broaden so called tax net but didn’t mention road and youth employment or improvement in digital infrastructure
2. The second paragraph of the bill repeats the object of the bill by stating among other factors to solve the rising debt crisis in the country. Although youth employment, digital infrastructure, entrepreneurial culture and flagship programs, no mention was made of Road infrastructure.
3. The accounts to hold this bill also speaks a lot about allocations or distribution. However, section 5 of the bill doesn’t pay any percentage of levy realized into the Road Fund or any any youth fund. Rather the section states that levies collected should be paid into the consolidated fund. This goes to support the point that this levy is to correct our debt crisis and not the so called youth employment and road infrastructure publicly communicated.
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4. I think that if the Electronic Transaction Levy is meant for roads and youth employment, then that should have been properly stated in the bill by allocating some percentages into the Road Fund or any youth employment fund but that was not done. I share this opinion because any money that enters the consolidated fund has other objectives than their intended objectives.
5. By the way, youth employment in this country has a lot of sources of revenue to create jobs for the youth. These are 80% of Communication Service Tax, 10% of District Assembly Common Fund, 5% of Ghana Education Trust Fund, donations and grants and lastly money approved by parliament.
6. Again, road infrastructure in this country has a Road Fund with its sources of revenue to develop the road infrastructure. The sources of funds are levies on petroleum products, inspection fees by Dvla, bridge, road, ferry tolls and lastly levies from international transit vehicles
My conclusions are:
1. The bill is handicapped and Ghana already has a lot of sources to create jobs for the youth as well as develop our road infrastructure.
Benjamin Nsiah
Head of Research @COPEC
Ghana | Atinkaonline.com
