Debating the 2023 Budget, the Ranking Member on the Finance Committee of Parliament, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson said such a move would overburden the ordinary Ghanaian hence the decision by the Minority to reject it.
“Why should we in these difficult economic conditions still task the person who your policies have made poorer? Mr Speaker, I can confirm to you that we, in the Minority on this matter, will reject it with all our might and strength. We believe that we should not accept this policy.”
The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) Ghana has also described the decision of the government to remove the daily GH₵100 threshold as inappropriate.
This, according to them, is because it fails to protect the poor in the current economic crisis.
Reacting to the announcement of a downward review of the e-levy rate from 1.5 per cent to 1.0 per cent in the 2023 Budget, the IEA said the government could attain the revenue target and boost usage of electronic transactions if it reviewed the rate further downward to 0.5 percent.
The removal of the GHC 100 per day threshold means that every little money transferred electronically from one account to another will attract the now-reduced 1% Electronic Transactions Levy (E-Levy).
Finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta has revealed that the government will reduce the controversial and burdensome Electronic Transactions Levy (E-Levy) from the current 1.5% to 1% and also remove the threshold from GHC 100 per transaction.
He disclosed this on the floor of parliament while delivering the 2023 budget.
According to him, the move is one of the various initiatives the government intends to roll out to turn the economy around and lessen the severe economic hardship that Ghanaians are currently going through.