E -Levy! The Way Forward? My View
The father of Economics , Adam Smith once postulated that ,"Little less is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism but peace , easy taxes , and a tolerable administration . He further suggested that ," all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things ". One would form an inference that , Adam Smith did not support the payment of tax . Far from this conclusion , he only suggested that, tax is not the only way to take money from the citizenry . . That not being said , no citizen is against tax payment as we would all agree that taxes are indispensable in the growth of the local economy . The resentment towards tax payment sterns from the fact that, little is done with the much generated revenue . In the developed economies, citizens rarely kvetch about the payment of tax because they reckon that the taxes are put into action.
Welcome to our side of the world , where we have some unscrupulous official who steer the affairs of the state , embezzle citizens' hard earned income as tax. Yesteryear in November, as expected , the finance minister, Hon. Kenneth Nana Yaw Ofori Atta, presented the budget statement of the state for the year 2022. He made a lot of proclamations which were discussed in the public domain. Nonetheless, the novel Electonic Levy nicknamed as E - levy , took all the attention amongst citizens . There's a charge of 1.75% on transactions made through electronic means wuty the amount ranging from Ghc 100 and above .
This policy immediately received massive backlash from the vast majority of the citizenry . The opposition political parties , various civil society organizations , and high profile personalities voiced out their grievances against the policy . Upon all the pressure mounted on the government to withdraw the levy , it still goes ahead to inplement it. Nothing pains more than the fact that when one reminices on what happened in the year , 1995 . The current president , Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo , led a demonstration and a movement popularly known as " the Kumepreko Demo" in order to mount pressure on the Rawlings led government to withdraw the Value Added Tax levy ( VAT) . Is Karma a bitch ? Hypocrisy is an understatement to describe this narrative .
I always opine that , citizens are not against the payment of E - levy . Their resentments are that , these monies will not be used to their own benefits but to feed the buccal cavities of some politicians . Government ! Listen to the plights and the cries of your people !
Most of the citizens were not against tax but they knew very well that the money will not be used for any problem solving project but as u said earlier "to feed the buccal cavities of some politicians"even though they promised to use it for problem solving projects. Anyways it's already here! I urge all citizens to mount pressure on the government to make accounts to the people quarterly what the monies collected was used for and how it was used for,not omitting a single detail; with this they will be alert, accountable and responsible and not squander it as they have been doing to other taxes just because we aren't interested in what they are used for.
ReplyDeleteExactly ! We demand accountability
DeleteHmmmm. A well written view. It saddens me with this e-levy tax. How will the less privilege in society manage with this economy.😟 Our views were not heard they still continued with initiating the tax payment.We pray that our taxes will be used for the betterment of the country.
ReplyDeleteWell, I hope this goes far. Information is power to. I understand the grievances the author shares in this piece and the regt of being in this part of the world. Well said, maybe we need genuine young men to steer the affairs of this nation
ReplyDeleteInvariably yes we need them but just them ? We need quality leadership
ReplyDelete