Former finance minister, Seth Terkper has stated that the government made a wrong move by passing the Emissions Levy when the excise tax was already in place.

Ghana in January 2024 became the third African country to introduce a form of carbon tax, after South Africa and Mauritius.

However, the new tax was heavily opposed by Ghanaians leading to its suspension and Seth Terkper insists there is an already existing tax that deals with environmental pollution.

According to him, Ghana was among the pioneers in using the excise tax to tackle pollution and the government didn’t need another levy to do that when there was an existing one.

“Ghana was amongst the first countries to use excise duty to tackle pollution and that’s why some of us were against the Emissions Levy.

“Under the excise duty, we used to prevent cars that are 10 years old and above from being imported. And the duty you pay on your car is decided on how long it had been used.

"An 8-year-old car’s emissions is more than a vehicle that is 5 years no matter how well it is handled,” Seth Terkper said at the PFMTax Africa’s media dialogue on Ghana’s IMF programme.