The leadership of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has ordered all Minority MPs to reject the controversial E-Levy when it is presented again in Parliament.

The opposition NDC has “unanimously agreed to do everything to prevent the E-Levy from being passed” in a bid to “undermine the government’s revenue mobilisation efforts,” the party resolved after a high-level meeting in Ada over the weekend.

An insider who attended the meeting told Dailymailgh.com that the end result is to force the Akufo-Addo-led government to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for financial assistance to service the national debt.

“Any MP who fails to comply with the directive will be punished severely by the party’s leadership,” the source said.

As a result, the source said the NDC plans to hold townhall meetings, radio interviews, write articles and also seek “unnecessary amendments” on the floor of Parliament.

The E-Levy would apply to mobile money payments, bank transfers, merchant payments, and inward remittances. It is aimed at widening the tax net as well as to rope in the informal sector.

Townhall meeting on E-Levy

The Government will on Thursday, January 27, 2022, hold a major Town Hall Meeting on the Electronic Transactions Levy (E-levy).

The exercise forms part of a series of engagements aimed at explaining the basics and importance of the E-levy transaction as well as taking feedback and inputs from relevant stakeholders that will inform government on the implementation of the levy.

The E-levy is a new tax measure introduced by government in the 2022 Budget on basic transactions related to digital payments and electronic platform transactions. This means a charge of 1.75% will apply to electronic transactions that are more than GH¢100.00 on a daily basis (24 hours).

Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister for Communication and Digitalization, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah and Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin are expected to speak at the exercise and in attendance will be sector-specific Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and other relevant industry stakeholders.

The Town Hall Meeting is organised by the Ministry of Information and will be live on various television networks in the country as well as the Ministry’s social media pages.