Keep the E-levy – Prof Adei tells Mahama

Former Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, Professor Stephen Adei has told the incoming Mahama administration to maintain the e-levy.

He argues that it is very important to introduce or maintain taxes that are easy to collect in Ghana. The e-levy, he said, is one of the taxes that are easy to collect in Ghana hence his call to keep it.

It is recalled that ahead of the 2024 general elections, National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate John Dramani Mahama promised to scrap several taxes within his first 100 days in office, arguing that these taxes burdened Ghanaians.

The taxes he promised to remove  included the e-levy, COVID levy, 10% levy on betting, emissions levy, and import duty on vehicles and equipment imported for industrial and agricultural purposes

But speaking on the Hot Issues on TV3 on Sunday, December 22, Prof Adei, also an economist said “They must carefully consider their promises, such as the taxes he is going to waive. I would not have even promised to remove e-levy because one of the very difficult things to do in a country like ours is getting people to comply with tax payments.

“In tax administration, if it costs more to collect money than what you are going to get, you better forget it. As for E-levy, I would rather want to reduce some other taxes and keep e-levy. Because you must reduce taxes which are difficult to collect and keep ones which are easier.”

He further noted that one of the downfalls of President Akufo-Addo was his inability to manage expectations.

Prof Adei explained that expectations management is very important in running the affairs of any organisation and a country.

He said this should be a warning sign to the president-elect John Dramani Mahama to manage the expectations of Ghanaians well.

Prof Adei said “I think that one of the downfalls of Akufo-Addo was his inability to manage expectations because what he promised that he would do he talked about Ghana getting to a point where we don’t need aid, now we are begging for money. So, expectation management is very important in running your home, your organisation, and running a country. So the first thing I will advise [John Mahama] is to manage expectations.”

“The second thing is that things should be done with the Ghanaian involvement, he has already said there will be a forum to discuss free SHS. So, it must be seen that you are engaging the people.

 

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