NDC Deflates Witchcraft Mate Attempt of NPP In E-Levy Fiasco …Ningo Prampram MP

The Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram, Sam Nartey George, has described as a fishing expedition for a “witchcraft mate” by the embattled New Patriotic Party (NPP)’s attempt to equate the NDC’s digital payment uniformity policy to the NPP’s obnoxious and e-levy.

The NDC’s digital payment uniformity policy had been proposed in its election manifesto of 2020.

In a Facebook post, the vocal and hardliner MP said the NDC will not allow itself to be made to share the NPP’s dishonor over the e-levy.

“It is lazy thinking, poor logic and crass incompetence for anyone with the slightest technical understanding to equate both policies. The obnoxious e-Levy is the baggage of the NPP and they should answer to the people of Ghana and stop looking for a witchcraft mate. The truth remains one,” Sam George said.

The post was in response to what has been described as a malicious campaign of twisted half-truth from the NPP which has claimed that the NDC had stated in its election manifesto that it would introduce something similar to the e-levy if it had been elected into office.

According to the NPP, the NDC in paragraph 8.7(c) on page 99 of the NDC’s 2020 People’s Manifesto indicated its intent to introduce the e-levy.

However, Mr. Sam George explains the paragraph is being deliberately twisted by the NPP in an attempt to share the e-levy baggage with the NDC, explaining that the paragraph had proposed uniform payment charges for electronic transactions.

“Let’s set the records straight! I was privileged to work with some very fine brains and seniors on the ICT sub-committee of the 2020 NDC manifesto team. I am very conversant with the text of the digital initiatives we sought to implement under the next NDC government. We had absolutely no intention of introducing an e-levy like the NPP has!”

“I have seen copious references made to paragraph 8.7(c) on page 99 of the 2020 People’s Manifesto and an attempt to suggest that what we described as ‘a uniform transaction fee policy to guide the electronic payments industry’ was a dream to introduce something similar to the obnoxious e-Levy. Nothing could be further away from the truth.”

Hon. Sam George added, “A quick check with my notes and the attached memorandum to the main committee that contained our technical justifications for our policy proposals would show that we were actually disposed to a uniform 0% transaction fee across the various platforms for on-net transactions and a much lower rate for interconnecting transactions.”