Western Regional Minister Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah says poor people won’t be part of persons taxed to pay the e-levy.
He argument stems from the fact that poor people in Ghana are people who earn only GHC 70 throughout the year.
Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah was speaking at the Government’s Town Hall Meeting held in the Western Region Wednesday, February 2, 2022.
“Another thing that has come up is the fact that when the e-levy is implemented, it will visit untold hardship on the poor Ghanaian. What I know is that the poor will not be made to pay for e-levy. There is no poor person who will be made to pay.
This is the analysis I make, In Ghana, if someone is said to be poor, the person earns only GHC 70 throughout the year. For the e-levy, if you pay GHC 100 for transfer you won’t pay for the money sent. Let’s say you are a teacher whose take home is 2,400 or an army officer who takes GHC 1,800 or a Policeman who takes home 1,600. If you take GHC 100 every day and transfer it, you won’t pay some of this levy. GHC 100 for 30 days will be GHC 3,000.
So a levy which the poor Ghanaian will not be made to pay some. No one can come and tell me it’s not a good thing. We all know that to whom much is given much is expected and for that reason those of us who have been blessed by God such that we earn more than Ghc 3,000. The country has given us more and we are the middle income and in every country, people who have made it help the country to develop. We cannot shed our responsibility as middle income people and turn around and blame the same government. I believe that if we come together and embrace it that will make it better.
