REVEALED! DEBT GUZZLING AKUFO ADDO TO USE E-LEVY TO BORROW MORE

-Public debt headed for Staggering GHC 400 billion.

A desperately broke and debt-ridden Akufo Addo administration is planning to use the obnoxious 1.75% Electronic Levy (e-Levy) proposed to be slapped on Ghanaians as collateral to borrow as sources of funds diminish for the administration.

The Akufo Addo administration had tried to cover up its true intentions for desperately pushing for the e-levy to be passed by the Ghanaian Parliament, but the Minister of Roads and Transport, Kwasi Amoako-Atta, has spilled the beans.

According to the Roads Minister, who is a cousin to President Akufo Addo, the government will securitise the e-Levy to borrow more for development projects in the country.

It is believed that the government is planning to use the e-levy to borrow some GHC 100 billion, bringing Ghana’s total public debt to more than GHC 400 billion, with the Akufo Addo administration being responsible for about GHC 300 billion of the debt in less than five years in office.

The minister was forced to come clean on the plan while responding to a question in Parliament from the Adaklu MP, Kwame Governs Agbodza.

“…The Government in its wisdom has called for the passage of e-Levy to bring in more revenue to build the road infrastructure of our country. So the government is looking forward to the passage of E-Levy that will bring in greater revenue that would be securitized and then used to raise a bond if possible, to build the road sector infrastructure,” he blurted out.

“…So Government direction and policy is to bring in better form of collection because the toll revenue is built in the proposed E-Levy,” he said

Earlier, in response to speculations that the government was planning to use the e-levy to plunge Ghana into more debt, the Deputy Finance Minister, John Ampontuah Kumah swore that the Akufo Addo administration will never do that.

“It is not true that the government is going to collateralize e-levy and all that, we are going to have enough revenues to be able to properly deal with the country’s development challenges, for example, to pay contractors working on our roads,” he stated.

Speaking to journalists in Kumasi, Mr. Kumah described those assertions as lies and malicious propaganda being peddled by people opposed to the introduction of the levy to create disaffection for the government.

However, relying on the e-levy alone for the developments as indicated by the entire government apparatus makes no logical sense in comparison to using the collected amount as security to borrow more.

To be sure, the government of Akufo Addo expects only GHC 6 billion annually from the e-levy collection, yet, Ghana’s annual budget is roving around GHC 100 billion.

Other than collateralizing the e-levy, there is no way to justify announcements made by government officials that if the e-levy is not passed, roads, cannot be constructed; the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy cannot be financed, and no other development can happen.

The government is so desperate for the e-levy to pass that it had rallied its members of Parliament amidst a violent fight in the Chamber, to overturn an earlier vote in Parliament to turn down the policy and strike it out of the 2022 national budget.

The Akufo Addo administration is having difficulties passing in Parliament, the widely condemned e-levy because the Ghanaian legislature is currently a Hung Parliament, with both the opposition and the ruling party having 137 seats apiece.

A single absence during voting will offset the passage of the e-levy. This is the reason why the government bribed the Dome Kwabenya Member of Parliament for the ruling party, Sarah Adwoa Sarfo with GHC 120,000 and also spent some GHC 1 million to ferry her in a private jet from the US to Ghana just to vote.

Adwoa Sarfo had gone AWOL, but it reportedly took the Chief of Staff, Frema Opare to wire some GHC 120,000 bribe into her account before she agreed to return to Ghana.

The e-levy seeks to impose a 1.75 percent levy on some electronic transactions such as mobile money transfers, which is mostly used by the unbanked in society.

Critics fear that an introduction of the e-levy, which has been rejected by about 90% of Ghanaians will result in people migrating from using electronic transfers and thus defeat the entire cashless drive of the government.