Should Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia be elected, he has promised to remove the contentious electronic transaction tax, or “E-Levy.”.
Speaking to the people of Ghana on Wednesday, the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party stated that he wished to combat corruption in addition to promoting economic growth by bringing Ghana swiftly to a cashless economy.
But he also said that in order to accomplish this, more individuals must be pushed to use electronic payment methods.
According to him, additional electronic payment methods must be promoted if this objective is to be met.
In order to do this, under my administration, there won’t be any taxes on digital payments. Thus, Dr. Bawumia declared, “The e-levy will be abolished.”
1.5% of e-transactions are subject to the e-levy, which went into effect on Sunday, May 1, 2022. Bank transfers, merchant payments, mobile money payments, and inbound remittances are all covered. A daily transaction cap of GH¢100 is excluded from this rule.
Dr. Bawumia, however, emphasized the significance of Ghana’s shift to a cashless society and mentioned transparency as a potent weapon against corruption.
He emphasized the advantages of cashless communities, pointing out that more electronic payments result in improved traceability and decreased corruption.
“I want to get Ghana as close to a cashless economy as I can in the least amount of time.” The Bank of Ghana has implemented many of the necessary processes and infrastructure, thus far making significant strides in this regard. These consist of the following: the capacity to use mobile money and merchant services; the Universal QRCode payment system; Gh-Link; debit cards; Ezwich; and GhanaPay.”
“We have established the required infrastructure to enable Ghana to become a cashless society. A digitized version of the Ghana cedi note in Sefwi Wiawso has recently concluded its test programmed, according to the Bank of Ghana. This is referred to as e-cedi, or central bank digital currency (CBDC). The Bank of Ghana will introduce the e-cedi, which is intended to function both online and offline.”.
“In my humble opinion, the e-cedi, with appropriate privacy protections, will be the ultimate weapon in our fight against corruption because it will provide transparency and reduce the risk of fraud, robbery, tax avoidance, and money laundering since it will be easy to track the movement of money and identify suspicious activity. The e-cedi will quicken the pace of Ghana’s move towards a cashless or near cashless society.”
