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Deputy Finance Minister, Dr. John Kumah, has urged Ghanaians to ignore assertions that the government has contracted a third party, ExpressPay, to ensure revenue monitoring and assurance for the implementation of the E-Levy.

According to the deputy minister, the claims by the Member of Parliament for Ningo-Prampram, Sam Nartey George, are false.

He added that the government has not paid ExpressPay US$40 million to build a system for the implementation of the E-Levy (Electronic Transfer Levy).

“Ignore Sam George's ill-informed assertion on the rollout of E-levy … alleging that GRA and MoF have engaged the services of Express Pay to build a cloud-based system at the cost of $40m for the E-levy.

“I wish to categorically state that Sam George's allegations are FALSE and must be discarded. There has not been any meeting at the Ministry of Finance that discussed the award of any contract to Express Pay,” a series of tweets shared by Dr. Kumah on April 22, read.

The deputy minister, who is also the MP for Ejisu, added that the behaviour of Sam George is consistent with the conduct of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to misinform Ghanaians about the levy.

“As Ghanaians are aware, the NDC has demonstrated that it will only win the E-levy discussion on FALSEHOOD and I'm not surprised Sam George has taken a leaf from their playbook to once again create public disaffection for Government and the E- levy,” he said.

He added that “… (the) government's determination to ensure that there is total transparency in all matters relating to the E-levy has not changed.”

Samuel Nartey George questioned the rationale behind the alleged plans of the government to purchase a system worth US$ 40 million for the implementation of the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy).

In a tweet shared on April 21, 2022, Sam George said that there is no need to purchase the system because the government has a system at the National Communication Authority (NCA) which can perform the same function.

According to the MP, the system will be bought from ExpressPay and will be to the benefit of some officials of the Ghana Revenue Authority and the finance ministry.