Bawumia’s involvement in the drafting of E-Levy: What Oppong Nkrumah actually said

The role played by the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, in the establishment of the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy) has become a major topic of discussion after he promised to cancel the levy and three other tax measures being implemented by the current government should he become president.

Some factions of the public on social media have since been reacting to a story with the headline, “Bawumia was instrumental in drafting E-Levy Tax,” attributed to the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah.

The minister is reported to have said this in an interview on Accra-based Citi FM in 2022, but what actually did he say?

In the said interview, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah was explaining why Dr. Bawumia, the current flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) did not say much about the E-Levy in his address on the economy of Ghana in April 2022.

A cross-section of the public was unhappy with Dr. Bawumia’s failure to explain his position on the levy at the address because he had stated in a previous interview that he did not support it because it would affect the poor.

Oppong Nkrumah, while reacting to the concerns, mentioned that Dr. Bawumia was only part of the discussions during the processes that led to the drafting of the E-Levy to ensure that it does not affect the poor.

“I can understand why some people want him to do an elaborate talk. But it should not be missed that his presentation was the third in the series of presentations by the government dealing with various issues, and we’ve dealt extensively with the E-Levy, travelling from Takoradi, Koforidua, Wa, Ho and other places engaging the public, Parliament and using mass media platforms explaining the whys.

“We’ve been dealing with the fact that those two principal issues, first that digitization will not be compromised by E-Levy, and have responded to the second matter that deals with the poor. The Vice President himself was very instrumental and I don’t think I break my cabinet oath when I say this,” he said.

He added, “He was very instrumental in the cabinet meetings and the EMT meetings to ensure that, that his principal argument of protecting the poor was upheld, and that is why the threshold of a GH¢100, which accounts for about 40% of Momo transaction on a daily basis was excluded from this levy.”



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