Unofficial Prime Minister Gabby was right; E-Levy has been spectacular failure – Mahama

Former President, John Dramani Mahama has backed claims by Gabby Otchere Darko that the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy) is not raking in the estimated revenue for government two months after its implementation commenced.

In a post on his Twitter page on Monday, June 27, 2022, Mr. Otchere Darko revealed that the E-Levy is only bringing in 10% of the projected revenue.

He noted that only GHS60million was realised from the expected GHS600million.

“After 5 months of stalemate and bashing, the e-levy, after implementation, is delivering only 10% of estimated revenues; our revenues remain very low as compared to the rest of the world; debt levels dangerously high, cedi, like most currencies, struggling against the US dollar,” the leading member of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) government said in a Tweet.

Describing Gabby Otchere Darko as an unofficial Prime Minister of Ghana while delivering a speech at the inaugural launch of Think Ghana Progress on Thursday, June 30, 2022, ex-President Mahama said the numbers provided on the E-Levy were not far from right.

According to him, data acquired indicate that the levy has been a spectacular failer providing a little of 11% of the projected revenue for government.

“The e-levy was presented as the panacea to the economic problems of Ghana. We were in fact told, that it would enable government reduce borrowing. True to our predictions and cautions to government about the overly ambitious revenue and fiscal policy targets, available first-quarter data show that those targets will not be met, and this will no doubt create even bigger credibility crisis for our battered economy.

“For the entire month of May, the much-vaunted e-levy, which was rammed down the throats of Ghanaians, yielded a paltry GHS 54 million against a target of GHS 475 million for that month representing only 11.3%. The month of June has not offered any sign of improvement as only about GHS 7.1 million had been collected by the first week of the month,” John Dramani Mahama said while speaking on the theme: "Ghana’s Debt Burden; Reflections and Solutions."

The 2020 presidential candidate of the NDC added, “These figures demonstrate that so far, the e-levy has been a spectacular failure and has become the mother of all nuisance taxes and I wish to reiterate my earlier promise that we will abolish it in the very first budget statement to be presented under the next NDC administration.”

In an advice to the ruling government, John Dramani Mahama urged President Akufo-Addo to take steps to restructure the country’s debt to avoid turning Ghana into Sri Lanka.