Flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has declared he will abolish the E-levy passed by the Akufo-Addo administration when elected President.
According to Dr, Bawumia, he entered politics to serve the nation and with a passion for solving problems, helping the poor, vulnerable and disadvantaged in society, he is determined to fight corruption and to do that. his administration will be transparent.
Delivering an address to the nation at the UPSA Auditorium in Accra on Wednesday, February 7, 2024, the flagbearer of the NPP said “Accumulation of wealth is not and has never been my passion or ambition. This why throughout my public life I have pursued policies, especially through digitalization, to check corruption in places like the ports, DVLA, NHIS, Passport Office, CAGD, etc. So I have a solid track record in fighting corruption. And I have earned a reputation for doing so”.
Furthermore, Dr. Bawumia emphasized that, “one of the most potent weapons against corruption is transparency. Many corrupt activities are cash-based. Apart from the obvious economic benefits of moving in the direction
of a cashless society, the literature does indicate that more electronic payments are used in transactions as
opposed to cash, the more there is traceability and therefore the less the corruption”.
He also noted that he would like to bring Ghana close to a cashless economy in the shortest possible time adding that so far the Bank of Ghana, has made a lot of progress in this direction by putting in place a lot of the systems and infrastructure required.
“These include mobile money interoperability, merchant interoperability, Universal QRCode payment system, Gh-Link, debit cards, Ezwich, and GhanaPay. We have put in place the necessary infrastructure for Ghana to go cashless”, Dr. Bawumia stressed.
The flagbearer of the NPP added that “the e-cedi, with appropriate privacy protections, will be the ultimate weapon in the fight against corruption because it will provide transparency, reduce the risk of fraud, robbery, tax avoidance, and money laundering since it will be easy to track the movement of money and identify suspicious activity. The e-cedi will quicken the pace of Ghana’s move towards a cashless or near-cashless society.
To move towards a cashless economy, however, we have to encourage the population to use electronic channels of payment. To accomplish this, there will be no taxes on digital payments under my administration.
“The e-levy will therefore be abolished”,