A poll hosted by the popular news portal, Ghanaweb, to gauge Ghanaians’ willingness to accommodate the controversial Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy) has shown a massive public aversion to the levy.
An overwhelming number of voters asked whether they accept the e-levy or not have voted against it, confirming the Akufo-Addo government is really swimming against the tide of public opinion in the quest to have the levy approved.
Out of a total of 38,225 votes so far, 35,014 voted against the approval of the e-levy. This represents 91.60% of the total votes cast.
Only a paltry 2,938 representing 7.69% voted in favor of the levy. Some 273 or 0.71% of all voters have said they are indifferent.
The results from the open internet voting only confirmed what is widely known – that Ghanaians are opposed to the levy which will allow the government to tax savings of people both through mobile money transfer and in their bank accounts.
The result also confirms that Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, lied when he claimed that his personal assessment of the views of Ghanaians shows they welcome the obnoxious tax which violates the fundamental principle of taxation that you do not tax savings or capital, but profit.
Meanwhile, the public survey and its results are coming at a time that the government is holding town hall meetings to convince Ghanaians into accepting the controversial tax.
According to the Akufo Addo government, the expected GHC 7 billion to be derived from the e-levy annually is the panacea to Ghana’s economic woes. Several government officials, including Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, have stated publicly that the country would grind to a halt if the e-levy is not extracted from angry Ghanaians.