-BY Daniel Bampoe
Deputy Minority Leader in Parliament, Patricia Appiagyei, has accused the government of reintroducing the controversial Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy) under new, less-transparent forms, despite its official repeal in April 2025.
According to her, many Ghanaians continue to feel the financial impact of the tax through alternative charges now applied to digital transactions.
Patricia Appiagyei, recently argued that the repeal of the E-Levy has not translated into the expected financial relief for ordinary citizens.
“The government has not been honest with Ghanaians. The E-Levy has merely been rebranded and slipped back into the system through hidden transaction costs and revised charges,” she said.
She stressed that this undermines public confidence and calls into question the credibility of the government’s tax reform agenda.
The E-Levy was initially implemented in May 2022 by the then administration as a 1.5% tax on all electronic financial transactions, including mobile money transfers and merchant payments.
The policy was met with fierce resistance from both the public and opposition political parties, who described it as regressive and burdensome for the average Ghanaian.
Public sentiment around the E-Levy significantly influenced the 2024 general elections, with many Ghanaians voting in hopes of a policy reversal.
Responding to these pressures, the incoming administration announced the repeal of the E-Levy during its first budget presentation in April 2025, declaring the end of what had become one of Ghana’s most unpopular taxes in recent memory.
However, Appiagyei’s recent claims suggest that while the tax may have been repealed in name, its essence remains intact.
She pointed to new transaction charges by financial service providers, which she says bear striking resemblance to the former E-Levy in both structure and effect.
“These fees may not be labelled ‘E-Levy’, but they function the same way — reducing the amount of money people can actually use after transfers,” she emphasized.
She urged the government to not only be transparent about any newly introduced charges but also to fulfill its electoral promise of entirely abolishing all E-Levy-like burdens.
She called for a full disclosure from the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Ghana on all transaction-based charges currently in place.
