2022 Budget: You have inflicted pain on Ghanaians; don’t rub salt in their wounds – A.B.A Fuseini tells gov’t

Member of Parliament (MP) for Sagnarigu in the Northern Region, Alhaji Alhassan Bashir Fuseini has blasted government over the introduction of Electronic Levy.

The E-Levy according to Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta is seeking to charge 1.75% tax on electronic financial transactions that exceed GHS100 every day.

This was justified by Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful who is Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, indicating that there should be no qualms about the new levy as people who are able to transact GHS100 daily are not poor.

“The state is saying that if you are sending up to a GH100 a day, cumulatively you can send up to GH3000 a month, that is all going to be tax-free. Now if you have more than a GH100 to send a day, then you’re not poor.

“So if you really are poor and you are in a position to send a GH100 a day, then we need to re-classify our definition of who really the beneficiaries of these are. And it is only the sender who pays, not the recipient. Unlike the telcos where both the sender and receiver pays,” Ursula Owusu-Ekuful said in an interview on GHONE TV on Thursday.

Reacting to that claim in an interview on Starr FM, A.B.A Fuseini has said the arrangement when approved by Parliament will see Ghanaians paying too much for services.

According to the Sagnarigu MP, government is being cruel by making Ghanaians pay more taxes than is been paid by any country in West Africa.

“Have we (Ghanaians) sunk so low to the point that people who send GHC100 are rich people for that matter we put them in that category? I am astonished. When we have inflicted pain on people we should not rob their wounds with salt because you are going to aggravate their injury and anguish.

“Let me place it on record that Ghanaians are already overburdened, in fact, Ghanaians are one of the most extortionately taxed people in the West Africa Sub-region if not the entire Africa continent. So from this background of heavy taxation on Ghanaians the least anybody would have expected in this budget is for the government to cushion them from the ravaging of COVID-19,” A.B.A Fuseini bemoaned.

Meanwhile, other Minority MPs in Parliament have said they will reject the introduction of the E-Levy to save Ghanaians from more suffering.