E-Levy: This is the first-time Ghana gov’t is telling its Ministers to go out and claim they have failed – Kofi Bentil

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Vice President of IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil, has intimated that the introduction of E-levy is evidence of failed governance.

Speaking on JoyNews Newsfile on Saturday, he indicated, “this is the first time I remember that government is allowing its Ministers to go out and claim they have failed.”

“It boggles my mind that the persons in charge of our economy admitting that it failed after five years of managing the economy and saying that the failure is so catastrophic that if we don’t give them more money we will crash. I can’t understand how that logic works in the first place,” he noted.

He berated that if the government failed to manage the economy in the first five years, the e-levy would not make any difference.

“If you have failed after record borrowing and incomes we’ve made from resources and other things after 5 years, then you come to ask me for the same people to give you more money after you have failed, especially, when the sources of that money will cause further havoc in other places.”

Mr. Bentil expressed that the introduction of the E-levy would have a huge negative effect on the digital economy.

Therefore, he wants the e-levy to be abandoned completely.

His comment comes after the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, cautioned of dire economic consequences for the country if the Electronic Transaction Levy aka E-Levy bill fails to pass through.

According to the Minister, the economic gains made by the government in recent years will stall if Ghanaians do not support the initiative.

“If we don’t do this E-levy, we are just pushing ourselves in a way that would potentially end up in such a disaster. There was a warning of that because last week was a very difficult week for the country,” Finance Minister said.

Reacting to this, Mr. Bentil suggested that to deal with the problem of an unstable economy, there is the need for the government to cut down its expenditures. He also advised for the cut down in the ministerial offices.

“You have 110 ministers, you can cut it to 50 nothing will change in this country. Who is funding the national cathedral and what is it adding to us? You absolutely can stop expensive presidential travels, you can stop driving 30 V8s to a function …. if you want people to join you in any form of sacrifice, you must show an example,” he added.