It is increasingly becoming evident that all Members of the New Patriotic Party are in support of the controversial 1.75% Electronic Transactions Levy (E-Levy) amid the voracious rejection by the majority of the populace.

For the Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong, while he also fully supports the bill, he claims he would have done more to get Ghanaians to pay it.

According to him, while speaking to GTV Breakfast, some of the arguments people make against the E-Levy are not sound enough especially if all the reference they make is with the Free Senior High School policy.

“I support the E-Levy and I would have gone a step further. The finance minister has been charitable to Ghanaians and you see, I listened to your guests before they left, but when I was coming, my driver put it on 92.7 and I was listening to the presenter. The way he spoke, criticizing the E-Levy, using the oil money for Free SHS, look, you journalists, you’re not above the law. You think you can say anything and go scot-free but the politician says something and you chastise him: we’re all equal before the law.

“The gentleman was talking about E-Levy and his argument is that, you see, he skewed the thing to only Free SHS but check how many areas that the minister mentioned what the [E-Levy] is going to do. Yes, it’s good that we’re using oil money for free education. Ask them - the NDC, they were using the free education to pay salaries. Which one do you prefer: a poor child doesn’t benefit, [but] it’s only people who are working? My question was that… if the Minister of Finance comes to say that we need E-Levy, let me tell you, even my best friend from America, is against the E-Levy,” he said.

Kennedy Agyapong further explained that even in the United States of America, there is a similar levy to the E-Levy and it is done for a particular reason as many businesses are moving online.

“This Saturday, we were arguing when I mentioned America and he said, ‘don’t go there.’ I said why not? America is the richest nation in the world and today, they are using, I want you to know, a form of E-Levy in America today. Why?

“E-Levy is not only Ghana; even the richest nation does. Economies, governments have realized that the trends of doing business are on our phone. So, how do you track people doing business on their phones to tax them? That is why they are implementing that.

He however expressed shock at the fact that people are fighting against the E-Levy when they pay higher ones to private entities without question, adding that the proceeds of the levy will be used to develop the country.

“And surprisingly, you Ghanaians, it is very easy to pay 2% to MTN but it is difficult for you to pay 1.5 to your own country for development. It’s a shame, Black people. We’ll continue to be slaves in our country because of our poor and bad mentality,” he said.

Watch the full interview below:
Source: Ghanaweb