Yaw Buaben Asamoa, Director of Communications, New Patriotic Party, NPP, reacted to former President John Dramani Mahama's decision to repeal the controversial Electronic Transfer Levy, E-levy.

According to him, the NDC leader is very desperate to gain credibility but he should abandon his re-election bid as Ghanaians will not vote for him.

Buaben Asamoa explained on Accra-based Citi FM that, “so John Mahama is saying he will repeal E-Levy when voted back into power. How is he going to reconcile his manifesto promise to push for uniform electronic transactions? His desperation is showing seriously. You had imposed a 17.5% tax on all electronic financial transfers, the NPP repealed that. The E-levy is 1.5% percent, a difference of 15%.

“The entire speech was not about shoring up even the NDC, it was about shoring up John Mahama who is wilting under the heat. This is a desperate measure. He is fighting for credibility within the NDC itself. All in all, I don’t think John Mahama’s performance has been taken seriously enough to warrant him victory in the 2022 elections.”

The governing NPP government commenced the implementation of the controversial levy on May 1, 2022, despite widespread condemnation of the tax policy.

The levy was reduced from 1.75% to 1.5% after several protests led by the opposition party, its Members in Parliament, and some civil society groups.

The opposition NDC had indicated that the levy is a double taxation and it is counterproductive.

Speaking at the 'Ghana at the crossroads' lecture in Accra, former President Mahama promised to stop Ghanaians from paying the controversial Electronic Transfer Levy (E-levy) if his party wins power in 2024.