Community Focus Foundation Ghana (CFF-GHANA) is deeply worried about the Government of Ghana’s entrenched posture to forcefully pass the unpopular E-levy against the will of the suffering Ghanaians.
Fast forward, it is on record that the Vice-President then in opposition, had argued strongly that there’s no need to tax poor citizens using mobile money services. On taxation, Ghanaians were promised that an NPP administration will move from taxation to production.
In demanding political accountability from government on behalf of the Ghanaian people, we would be grateful to know what necessitated those mouth-watering promises on whose back the party came to government?
It is trite knowledge that the Auditor General’s Report clearly indicated that Ghana loses Ghc12 billion every year through corruption. If government claims the E-levy will give us Ghc7 billion a year, why won’t government put in measures to recover those stolen monies instead of overburden Ghanaians with an E-levy?
While we support government in taxing relevant services reasonably in putting Ghana on the path of sustained progress, we, however disagree completely with government on the now infamous E-levy and call on all Ghanaians to reject same without any hesitation.
We consider the continuous attempt by the regime to forcefully impose a tax described by many as ”nuisance and retrogressive tax” on poor citizens as insensitive, hypocrical, betrayal and demonstration of bad faith towards the Ghanaian people who gave them the mandate to govern.
Under the circumstance, we highly recommend the following to government;
- That government strengthen the capacity of Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to effectively collect taxes on behalf of the state;
- That government take urgent measures in stopping tax leakages in the system.
- That government work closely with Civil Society especially the Tax Justice Coalition and other relevant agencies to roll out a National Tax Payment Campaign to inform the citizens on the importance of tax payment, what their taxes are being used for and other related issues.
- That government commits itself politically in the fight against corruption to justify the confidence reposed in them by citizens.
