The Minister of State in charge of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam Anta, has served notice government is seeking to enhance the Electronic Transaction Levy, popularly known as e-levy, to collect more from the public.
He says government has been disappointed with the performance of such an important tax.
As a result, efforts are going to be put into making it more efficient since it constitutes an import revenue source for government.
Dr Amin Adam, who is also the Member of Parliament for Karaga Constituency, made this known on Tuesday, August 1 while speaking in an interview on TV3‘s New Day.
“I think that e-levy is not doing as well as we wanted,” he conceded.
“As a result, in the mid-year budget [review], the e-levy projections have been revised down.”
But he insisted that online business has gained grounds worldwide and, so, revenues from such transactions have contributed a great deal to the development agenda of various governments.
“We need to be able to enhance the collection because it is a big opportunity out there.”
He, therefore, announced that “e-levy is going to be enhanced”.
“We will make it more efficient in order to collect more.”
He said the amendments to the Electronic Transfer Levy Act, Act 1089, affected the revenue expectations on electronic transactions as “Parliament reduced the rate and reduced the threshold”.
But the former Tamale mayor served notice all opportunities to make the e-levy generate more for government projects are being considered to achieve the objective of its introduction in 2021.