Emile Short wades into controversial e-levy debate

A former Commissioner on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, Justice Emile Short, has called on the government to pay heed to the views of the majority of Ghanaians with regards to the passage of the controversial Electronic Transaction levy (E-levy).

According to Mr Short, majority of Ghanaians have kicked against the passage of the levy and, therefore, government must do as the people want.

Speaking on Accra-based Class FM, he insisted the government must listen to the view of Ghanaians.

“I think the majority of Ghanaians from a survey that I read are against the e-levy and it is my view that government should listen to the views and opinions and voices of the majority of Ghanaians on this issue because I think majority of Ghanaians think that they will be adversely affected by the passing of this e-levy legislation since a lot of electronic transactions are done by quite a sizeable number of Ghanaians.

“So I’m hoping the government will listen to the views of the majority of Ghanaians. I don’t think the views and argument the government has put forward for the e-levy have been supported by the majority of Ghanaians,” he said.

Touching on the ongoing debate in parliament, Mr Short described as “unfortunate” the extent of anger that led to a brawl among legislators in parliament.  

“First, it’s unfortunate that a brawl broke out in parliament arising out of a discussion on the e-levy and there were fisticuffs as well as invectives being thrown at each other by the two dominant political parties,” he said.

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“The expectation of the electorate from the close results of the 2020 elections where we have a hung parliament with an almost equal representation of the two dominant parties was that they will work together, they’ll collaborate and arrive at consensus as opposed to the previous situations where one party had a dominant representation.

“Unfortunately, that expectation has not been fulfilled. It’s unfortunate we are seeing this animosity between the two parties about the e-levy,” he bemoaned.