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A chevy of a levy
Chevrolet, (pronounced sher-vro-lay), is an American car from the stable of General Motors, (GM). Its short form is Chevy, (pronounced sher-vy). Interestingly, both its full name and short form are real words in Spanish and English respectively, with some fascinating connotations. According to the online Word Magic English-Spanish Dictionary, Chevrolet in Spanish means persecution. In English, the short form, chevy, means persecution as well, with synonyms such as torment, irritation, annoyance, nag, badger, heat, pursuit, chase, or harass.
Sometimes, it is spelt chivvy which means to obtain by small manoeuvres. Another meaning attributed to the word is confusion. It is also listed as a crossword-clue for an act of pursuing with an effort to overtake or capture. In short, it implies going after with the intent to catch.
Whatever meaning is adopted for the full form or the shorter version of the word, one thing is certain. It has elements of a pursuit, irritation, and confusion in it. The Electronic Transaction Levy (commonly known as Electronic Levy or E-Levy) proposed by the Government of Ghana seems to be one chevy of a levy, what, with all the confusion surrounding it and the schemes to push it down the throats of Ghanaians? Its discussion has even led to a nasty brawl in parliament. Now, you understand why I call it a chevy of a levy. It has already led to irritation, chaos, and disagreements.
The levy, pegged at 1.75 per cent on all electronic transactions in the informal sector, was proposed on November 17, 2021, by the Minister of Finance, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta during the presentation of the 2022 budget. Transactions above GH¢100.00 will be affected and areas to be captured under the levy include the following:
- All inward remittances (which would be paid by the recipient)
- All person-to-person mobile transactions (which includes sending of funds to another account, payment for goods and services, payment of utilities
- All POS/Merchant payments.(POS means Point of Sale), that is, the place where a transaction takes place. It may be virtual or real.
The minister said the policy would not only widen the tax net but could generate about $1.15 billion to be used for the payment of contractors in Ghana. Besides, revenue from the levy would provide funds to support entrepreneurship, cyber and digital security; road infrastructure and job creation for about 11 million people in the country, as well as help reduce borrowing and the national debt.
He justified the introduction of the levy with the explanation that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increase in the use of digital platforms for transactions. That rationalisation is tantamount to turning the already impoverished masses into easy prey to make a quick buck.
The Government should be told in no uncertain terms that you cannot eat your cake and have it. Were we not told that Ghana was gearing towards a cashless economy, and that digitisation was the tool to achieve that? Why then should there be a tax on digitisation improvement? This ambivalence could be suicidal, defeatist, and counter-productive.
Truth be told, no nation can develop without relying on some form of taxation. Economic experts stress that Africa’s development is stifled by certain critical deficits which, if not addressed, would continue to impede the continent’s advancement. They include low access to healthcare together with poor service, high illiteracy rate as well as poor quality of education and inadequate energy supply to fuel industrialisation, add value to primary products, boost exports and reduce imports.
Without doubt, education remains the backbone of sustainable development. That is why the introduction of the Free Senior High School by the Government must be lauded. Though fraught with a lot of difficulties, it is a step in the right direction. It only needs fine-tuning which must be done with consultation, not unilaterally. With time, the benefits will be self-evident through the skills acquired and increased productivity among other things.
Not much can be said for the energy sector. For a country with so much promise in the immediate post-independence era even without oil, we still lag behind big time as far as our energy generation is concerned. Some efforts have been made to reduce the deficit, but major investments must be made in alternative sources like solar and wind to address the shortfall and help meet the country’s sustainable development goals.
Another vital area of concern that the experts blame for the continent’s lack of development is the deficit in domestic revenue mobilisation which has long starved Africa of vital funds needed to sponsor spending and various public expenditures at various levels of development – national, regional, and district.
It takes taxation to meet those goals. But when individuals and corporate entities transfer their wealth to the government this way, they do so with the understanding that the money will be used in the most judicious manner to improve the general well-being of the people.
In fact, the inflows we receive from the advanced countries in the form of aid, loans and foreign direct investments are made possible through taxation. Their tax to GDP ratio is way higher than Africa in general and Ghana in particular. The tax to GDP ratio is the contribution of taxes to the country’s total monetary or market value of its finished products and services within a year
It is agreed that at around 12 per cent, Ghana’s tax to GDP ratio is lower than the 16.5 per cent average for Sub-Saharan Africa recommended as the minimum threshold for a fairly healthy economy. Available records indicate that as of August 2021, only 2.4 million, (13.3per cent) out ofabout 18 million potential income taxpayers, were registered as personal income taxpayers.
Meanwhile, only 45,109 entities are reported to be registered as corporate taxpayers while 54,364 persons are registered as self-employed taxpayers at the Ghana Revenue Authority. On the other hand, there are about 17 million registered voters and about 19 million active mobile money accounts. That obviously makes Ghana’s economy a very informal one and that does not conduce to effective mobilisation of personal income tax through the P.A.Y.E. system as pertains in developed countries. The statistics do not look good for development.
It is against this backdrop that the Government sees the E-Levy as an opportunity to make up lost ground. In the Minister’s calculation, the E-Levy, if passed as proposed, would widen the tax base in the medium term and increase the country’s tax to Gross Domestic Ratio (GDP) to 16.5 per cent and subsequently to 20 per cent, “as pertains among our peers.”
Very lofty and laudable ideas if you asked me! But for Ghana, and most African countries, the problem is not so much the lack of resources as our own doing. Mismanagement, corruption, misplaced priorities, insensitivity to the plight of the masses and a host of other self-imposed burdens have conspired to put the gear of progress in reverse.
The Akans have a proverb that: “3mmoa a, omo kՉՉ adidie mmae a, y3nnka bi nnkՉgu mu.” That translates loosely to: “It is unwise to send more cattle out for grazing if the previous herd has not returned home.”
For a start, the levy should be pegged at one per cent given the fairly large size of the cohort of the population projected to be targeted. Besides, we must be meticulously prudent in managing the money and have verifiable evidence of the proper allocation of resources earmarked for the various sectors of our development plan. The advanced countries do it so well that they can squeeze a substantial chunk for us and still manage their health services, education, energy, infrastructure, and housing very well.
Not so in our part of the world where we can collect road tolls for decades yet cannot show concretely how roads benefitted from such tolls. Now, we are told that the toll has been scrapped but only God knows how it will resurrect in one form or another.
In recent times, how many new taxes have been introduced or are to be introduced? I mean the VAT FLAT RATE SCHEME,(VFRS), introduced for retailers and wholesalers at three per cent; VAT withholding, COVID-19 Health Levy adding one percentage point to both VFRS and NHIL, and others? Some have been scrapped but it is like “robbing Peter to pay Paul”.
Ghana needs the money to fast-track its economic transformation. But for this to happen, people have to be healthy, trained to acquire skills, live in decent housing, have access to affordable means of transportation as well as get credit. These are the things that developed countries ensure for their people through the taxes they collect. And these are integral to any development agenda planned for Ghana.
Contact: teepeejubilee@yahoo.co.uk
By Tony Prempeh
THE Orthodox Church is leading a moral revolution. At least the Methodist Church will no longer permit entry to church members or visitors dressed as if they were heading for a beach party. Those dressed in hot-pants and skimpy tops will be ushered out or physically prevented from entering.
It has taken a lot of courage for the Methodist Church to come to this decision, even at the risk of losing members who believe in sartorial liberalism and ecclesiastical democracy.
Some churches have still not mustered that courage, because they still nurse misconceptions about the church. Some say the church must be built with increased membership, which is unbiblical. Narrow is the path of righteousness.
The house of God is not a market-place or a discotheque. It must be kept holy. Anyone who wants salvation should be humble enough to dress decently before coming to the altar of the Lord. Jesus had to cane people who desecrated the synagogue.
CONTROVERSIAL
The other change people want in the church is about TITHING. It is a very controversial matter, made more controversial by some pastors insisting that all church members must pay tithe.
In other words, tithing has been made compulsory. Even some tithes are allegedly calculated and deducted at source. When Jesus hears some of these things he’d lament.
In some churches, you must pay tithe, otherwise when you die, the church will have no hand in your burial. Is that the unscriptural mandate the church has arrogated to itself?
Tithing began with the Levites, the priesthood. Because priests were not permitted to work, God stipulated that Israelites should see to their welfare through the sub-mission of 10 per cent of their crop and animal yield. This was to be put in the storehouse of the Lord. Anyone who did this was expected to be blessed in terms of increased farm or animal yield.
The priesthood itself has gone through many changes. Today, it is only the Catholic Church that properly undertakes to cater to the needs of the Catholic Church cannot be challenged
In other churches, what pastors are given is so puny that they virtually have to fend for themselves. So pastors have drifted into other vocations, and pastoring has become a part-time job.
When Jesus came, He neither condemned nor promoted tithing, probably because He did not want to be an impediment in the way of the Law and neither did He want to condone a practice that was outliving its usefulness. So He spoke very little about tithing, not saying whether it was good or bad.
What He however stressed was GIVING. “Give and it shall be given unto you…” Luke 6:38. He emphasised kindness to the poor, because both the rich and poor have the spirit of God in them.
What I am sometimes curious about is why the modern church has abandoned all the Old Testament edicts and laws, but sticks so rigorously to only tithing.
In the Old Testament, believers in God were sacrificing sheep, cows, doves and burning grain as a way of atoning for their sins or as offering to God. They were barred from eating certain animals and birds because they were labelled unclean.
When Jesus came, all these stopped because there was a new dispensation. It no longer mattered what your sins were or what you ate. If you became penitent and believed in the Lord Jesus as your personal saviour, you were indeed saved
OBLIGATORY
Jesus or the church did not come to prosper anybody. He said give and it would be given unto you. And giving must not only be to the church, but to fellow human beings who need our support. With the advent of Jesus, tithing had become an issue of little relevance, because instead of tithing (giving to the church a tenth), Jesus declared no limits. You give according to your freewill “because God loves a cheerful giver.”
Today, those who tithe give it grudgingly because it is not of their own freewill. It is like a tax. This should not be!
And because it has become more compulsory than obligatory, believers are paying tithes on gifts, on loans they take and whatever monies they get. Even those who do not work borrow money to pay tithe, when your tithe is supposed to be from your income earned out of productive work.
Those who don’t work are not supposed to pay tithe. You can give money to the church but not in the form of tithe, because tithe is paid only from productive work. Once you pay tithe, you are supposed to be working.
Now, should tithing be abolished? I would say no, because I feel that the priest-line must still be maintained so that we cease having part-time pastors who have divided attention. So the church must look after their pastors so that they can lead the flock safely to heaven. However, those who give towards this cause should not be called tithers. They should be called GIVERS TO THE CHURCH.
It doesn’t have to be 10 per cent. It could be 20 or 30 per cent so long as you give of it cheerfully. It could be five per cent or a widow’s mite.
I personally do not believe that unless you tithe, you will not prosper. What of if I give more than a tenth? It is not a tithe, but would God not appreciate it?
I believe, there must be no limit to giving. The tithing was God’s limit to Israel at the time so as not to overburden them. That should not be the standard-of today. Jesus didn’t say “tithe.” He said “give”
Giving to the church will open doors of blessings. And giving to the poor will open even greater doors.
This article was first published on Saturday September 30, 2006
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My name is Bernard Forson. I was fortunate to have been blessed with three elder sisters, who contributed to give me a smooth tertiary education.
My dad taught Economics in senior high schools all his working life, mostly in the Central Region, and my mother worked as a matron or catering officer, either in the same school with Dad, or in senior high schools and polytechnics close by. My parents gave their four children a good upbringing and education.
Interestingly, all my three sisters studied catering at the polytechnic, and after a few years working in government establishments, established the Sankofa Restaurant and Catering, where they provided first class local dishes for patrons and delivered regular orders. They were strategically on the Circle-Achimota road, and many customers stopped for breakfast, lunch and supper all day.
I was a ‘retirement baby’, born ‘by accident’ when my parents were close to retirement, so my sisters took over all issues relating to my education. I sailed smoothly through university, earning a first class degree in development economics.
I did my National Service with the Electricity Company of Ghana, and was offered a job in the Projects Department, My sisters advised me to acquire a postgraduate qualification, so with the ECG experience in mind, I did an 18 month Masters Degree in Project Management at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, during which time I often went to help my colleagues at the Projects Department.
I was re-engaged at the ECG, but six months into the new job my fatherly Head of Department, Mr. Osekre, encouraged me to apply for the job of Northern Sector Project Manager at what was advertised as a ‘development agency’.
It turned out to be the European Union, which gave me the responsibility of coordinating the development jobs being done by various contractors in the northern regions. I was offered a comfortable flat in Tamale, and given a new pick-up truck.
I established good rapport with the contractors, and sent monthly reports which informed them about the progress of work. I established an online portal which enabled them to easily monitor what was happening in all their projects.
This was greatly appreciated, and the Commissioner wrote to thank me, and informed me that due to my work, the regular visits by expatriate staff to the north had become unnecessary. And better still, the offices in Brussels and other countries heard about me. I was sent to several African countries to help them establish similar online facilities, and was soon promoted to Consultant.
I often came to Accra by air to spend a few days with family and friends, but I preferred to drive, because it gave me the opportunity to bring a substantial amount of foodstuffs for use in the restaurant. Of course, I was very well paid, Upon the advice of my elder sisters and my mentor Mr. Osekre, I took two major decisions. I decided to find a stable lady partner to marry and start a family. I also decided to invest in housing projects. Mr. Osekre took me to some areas in Accra with several uncompleted buildings, and suggested that I buy a couple of these houses, finish them and sell.
Under his guidance, I did extensive investigations to find the actual owners of the properties and completed negotiations with them.With all the resources I could muster, I put them into perfect condition, and buyers rushed to take them even when I was putting final touches to them. Having made a substantial profit, I registered a company, opened an office and employed two graduates to scout for properties, conduct searches on property documents, and arrange meetings with the owners of the properties. This became a very successful business to which I could retire anytime I wanted.
On the relationship side, I reconnected with Abena Gyasi, who was two years behind me at the university, and was working in a recruitment agency. We had gone out a few times, and I had visited her family and enjoyed their company.
Apart from the fact that her parents were well known to mine, we got on well together, and although I did not propose directly, all indications pointed to our heading towards marriage. She was tall and quite elegant with a commanding presence, and I felt proud about the glances that were cast in her direction when we went out. We enjoyed each other’s company, and spent long hours on the phone when I was out of town.
Everything went well until I went to her house one morning, and she introduced her friend Jennifer, who was her mate in senior high school. She was a big girl, quite fashionable and outgoing. They talked excitedly about new fashion trends, and called other mates to chat.
I was quite glad that she had found someone to spend time with when I was not around. She smiled and even joked with me, but I felt a bit uneasy that she was not too excited about me. I thought this was normal, as she perhaps wanted Abena all to herself.
A few weeks later, Abena started asking questions about my job, even though I had told her a lot about my work in the north. On Mr. Osekre’s advice, I had only told my family about the investment business.
It was better to wait till it was on firm ground, he advised, and that would take at least a couple of years. Of course, I would tell her everything when we decided to get married. She started asking some funny questions like ‘did you say you were doing agricultural extension work or development projects?’
Initially I gave her answers with some details, but when she persisted along the same lines, I said out of exasperation, ‘Abena, why do you keep asking the same questions even though I have answered you? Listen, there is nothing wrong with agricultural extension work, but that is not my line of work. But if that is what you wish to believe, then please go ahead, if it makes you happy.
I just don’t understand this’. Not long after, some friends said they had seen her with Jennifer eating lunch with some young guys. I complained, and said that I would prefer it if she went out with only me at that stage in our relationship. And if she needed to go out with others, I had to know.
To my great surprise, she brushed it off, saying ‘but Bernard, what is wrong with going out for lunch with friends? As for this one, I think you are doing too much?’ That was the beginning of the end.
By Ekow de Heer
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