COVID-19 Levy has intricate linkages with our IMF pragramme – Mahama on why promise to scrap hasn’t been fulfilled

President John Dramani Mahama has explained why the COVID-19 levy is still being charged despite his promise to scrap it if elected.

The promise to scrap the COVID-19 levy was made in the 120-day social contract with Ghanaians in the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) 2024 Manifesto.

Addressing the nation to mark his 120 days in office, the President said rather than scraping it, the COVID-19 levy will be included in the Value Added Tax regime.

“On April 2nd, i signed several bills into law, including the Electronic Transfer Levy- E-Levy Repeal Bill 2025, the Emissions Levy Repeal Bill and the Betting TAX. We have delivered on three of the four specific tax repeals  as promised.

The COVID levy has intricate linkages to the existing IMF programme. As a value-added tax, we have agreed with our multilateral partners to include it in our overall VAT rationalization exercise scheduled for September of this year,” he said.

“We have significantly exceeded our 120-day promises regarding overall tax reform by enacting other critical bills, such as the Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bill, Income Tax Amendment Bill, the removal of VAT on motor vehicles, the Public Financial Management Bill, the Growth and
Sustainability Levy Act, the Earmarked Funds Capping and Realignment Bill, the Gold Board Bill, the Energy Sector Levy Bill, and the Petroleum Revenue Amendment Bill,” he added.

 

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