The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has made positive projections on the country’s political landscape in its latest Five Year Forecast. According to EIU, despite the “highly acrimonious party-political landscape” of the country, it expects the sector to be stable through the period.
“The fierce rivalry between the two major parties—the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC)—will remain the core feature of the political scene,” the London-based organization noted.
Highlighting the razor-thin NPP-led Parliament, EIU further observed that reaching a consensus on certain policies, particularly, taxes and reforms will be very tumultuous
Using the controversial Electronic Transfer Levy (E-levy) as an example, the Economic Observers said
“In November 2021 the minority government rejected the proposed 2022 budget bill over the introduction of an electronic-transaction levy (e-levy); this was later reversed, and the 2022 budget bill was passed by an NPP-led majority, albeit without the e-levy clause,” it recounted.
E-levy
E-levy was first mentioned by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, when he was presenting the 2022 budget in November 2021. He explained that the “innovative” tax will broaden the government’s revenue generation basket. However, the tax policy generated a lot of controversy in Parliaments and amongst the citizenry.
As the Majority Caucus said it will propel Ghana’s development, economists and Minority in Parliament said the Levy will only intensify the hardships of average Ghanaians. But after nearly three months of back and forth, including fisticuffs among Parliamentarians, the E-Levy Bill was passed by the Majority-sided Parliament on Tuesday, March 29.
The Levy was passed at a reduced rate of 1.5% from the initial 1.75% amid a Minority walkout.
