Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah has said government has no plans of abolishing the proposed 1.75% digital financial transactions levy in the 2022 Budget Statement.
This follows the failure of the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta to make any definite concession on the matter when he briefed the press about a number of adjustments to the budget statement to accommodate the wishes of Minority MPs and other stakeholders yesterday.
Although Mr Ofori-Atta did not say what the government was prepared to trade-off with regard to the introduction of the E-Levy, he said it was confident that a consensus would be reached between both sides for the Appropriation Bill of 2022 to be passed before Parliament rose on December 17.
But speaking in an interview with Neat FM monitored by Mynewsgh.com this morning, the Information Minister said the consultations on the E-levy have nothing to do with a possibility to abolish it outright but to rather concede on the percentage.
He said the telecommunications companies who charge 2% on all mobile money transactions have agreed to reduce their profits by 0.25%; government would now consider whether to also make a concession to reduce its own projections by 0.5% or less to arrive at a cumulative charge of either 3% or 3.5% on all Momo transactions.
He reiterated government’s argument that the E-levy is the surest way to widen the tax net to make funds available for developmental projects and jobs creation.
