Jul 1, 20222 min read

E-LEVY WAS NOT, IS NOT AND WILL NEVER SOLVE GHANA'S PROBLEMS - KWESI PRATT

• According to him, "the hole in the country's purse, E-Levy can't fill it. Even if we collect everything, that we expect, it can't fill that hole.

• E-Levy was not a solution, is not a solution, and will never be the solution to our deficit. The deficit is far, far bigger than the E-Levy.

Editor-in-Chief of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr. has slammed government over its Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy) initiative aimed at generating revenues to improve the infrastructure development of the country and better the lives of Ghanaians.

Contributing to Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" morning show, Mr. Pratt burst the government's bubble with his assertions that the E-Levy won't solve the country's financial challenges.

According to him, "the hole in the country's purse, E-Levy can't fill it. Even if we collect everything, that we expect, it can't fill that hole. So, E-Levy was not a solution, is not a solution, and will never be a solution to that problem of the deficit.

The deficit is far, far bigger than the E-Levy...We all know, from the very beginning, that E-Levy was not a solution. It has not been a solution. It has never been a solution".

Kwesi Pratt's comments come after recent tweets by Gabby Otchere-Darko, a member of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) and cousin to President Nana Akufo-Addo, regarding the E-Levy and the IMF.

To him, the E-Levy is not serving its purpose.

"After 5 months of stalemate and bashing, the e-levy, after implementation, is delivering only 10% of estimated revenues; our revenues remain very low as compared to the rest of the world; debt levels dangerously high, cedi like most currencies, struggling against the dollar", he tweeted on Monday.

Mr. Otchere-Darko further tweeted; “Am I against an IMF programme in principle? No. I am not for an IMF programme that throws peanuts at us but imposes conditions that will end up hurting the poor, jobs and businesses more."

His tweets have courted controversies as some critics believe he is subtly stirring the government to reconsider its position of not going to the IMF.

To Kwesi Pratt, though the E-Levy is not a solution to the country's problems, "the IMF won't help us today or tomorrow" either.

"The IMF is not a good thing nor a good place for anybody to go...IMF is not a solution at all. We shouldn't even think about it at all; let's not go there!", he further stressed.

He asked the government to find a different better way to ameliorate the plight of the citizenry.

Watch the video below: