Gabby Otchere-Darko, former Executive Director of the Danquah Institute has lamented the lack of revenue alternatives facing the NPP government.
According to him, the failure of the controversial electronic levy to generate the expected revenue for the government so far shows that Ghanaians don’t like paying taxes.
Taking to social media to bemoan the situation, Gabby Otchere-Darko said the e-levy police are good but the Ghanaians are the problem.
“If the e-levy is so far not bringing in the estimated revenues, it does not mean it is a bad tax. It means Ghanaians simply do not want to pay taxes,” he tweeted.
The former Executive Director of the Danquah Institute revealed that the tax measure has only managed to deliver on 10% of the estimated revenue target.
He noted that Ghana could go back to International Monetary Fund (IMF) as an option if something good does happen.
The leading member of the NPP government was quick to add that “I am not for an IMF program that throws peanuts at us but imposes conditions that will end up hurting the poor, jobs and businesses more.”
“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 US dollar,” Gabby tweeted.
In a series of tweets, Mr Asare Otchere-Darko said the low rate at which Ghanaians are paying the levy has put the government in a fix.
“What options are open to the government? The question should rather be: what option if adopted, will re-inject investor confidence in our economy? Even if we find the $3-5 billion required, will that help? E-levy which was to have given us some 600m by now has done less than 60m”, he tweeted.
He also added: “Our economy is growing faster than most countries around the world. But, that alone can’t save us as confidence in our ability to service our debts is lowering. We can’t continue to use all the little revenues raised to pay our debts. Very soon we may have to borrow to pay wages!”
