Economist and political risk analyst, Dr Theo Acheampong, has joined the many academics who say the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy) will make little or no impact on Ghana’s already troubled economy.
According to the Researcher at Aberdeen University, Ghana’s biggest economic problem has been the penchant for governments to run very expensive state machinery.
Commenting on the controversial mobile money and fintech tax that the Nana Akufo-Addo government appears resolute to pass to raise revenue, Dr Acheampong said in a Facebook post on Saturday that unless government institutes proper reforms, no tax regime will be able to bring the economy any respite.
“There are too many leaking holes with very little value for money. We need proper reforms on the expenditure side of the equation, lest we keep pouring into a leaking basket, even with e-levy! I repeat, we have a far bigger EXPENDITURE PROBLEM than a revenue one.
“That’s where the focus of our energies must be targeted at. Far too many wasteful expenditures (some due to corruption and others due to significant lapses in the public financial management systems, among others) despite years of so-called structural transformation and reforms,” he said.
Discussion about this post