Professor at the University of Ghana Business School, Patrick Asuming, has called for the elimination of the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy), referring to it as a detrimental tax that should be abolished regardless of whether road tolls are reintroduced.

The government ceased the collection of road tolls in 2021 upon the implementation of the E-Levy as an alternative.

However, the government has recently reversed this decision and announced plans to resume toll collection.

Minister of Finance, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam during the 2024 mid-year budget presentation stated that Cabinet has approved a framework to facilitate the reintroduction of tolls in 2025.

Speaking on TV3's Key Points programme on Saturday, July 27, 2024, Patrick Asuming said, “The E-Levy is a bad tax that should be removed with or without the road tolls. I am very suspicious that these road tolls will be back. In 2023 they stated that they were going to bring back some tolls that were removed but we didn’t hear anything about it. Now you are saying this."

“I am not sure there is a real intention to bring back the road tolls. It was a bad idea to remove the road tolls,” he stated.

The introduction of the E-Levy in May 2022 was intended to boost domestic revenue mobilization.

After facing criticism, the E-Levy tax rate was reduced from 1.5% to 1%.

Data from the Ghana Revenue Authority indicated that GHC600 million was collected in 2022, and GHC1.2 billion was generated from the E-Levy in 2023.

SA/OGB