As Ghanaians struggle to understand the controversial Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy), many have questioned whether the government and opposition can ever agree on its necessity.
On May 1, the government went ahead with the implementation of a 1.50 percent tax on electronic transactions, which has been met with a slew of harsh criticisms, with some calling it outright insensitive due to illegitimate deductions.
On Twitter, though, the debate took an unpleasant turn when two politicians got into a heated argument about several E-Levy exclusions.
"In terms of the law, you're paying from a personal account to a corporate account, i.e. if the church is registered as a corporation." Mr. Ashigbey said on Joy FM's Super Morning Show that the law does not exempt Corporate Mobile Money, so it will continue to attract it.
"Because you are the one paying your tithe, the weight of the payment on the transfer falls on you." Apart from the tithe, the individual paying will be required by law to pay some taxes to the government."
Ningo-Prampram Sam George, a member of Parliament who had been a vocal opponent of the initiative, felt vindicated by this remark.
He told Deputy Finance Minister John Kumah in a tweet. "Please do us a favour and be quiet when we're talking about IT deployment." On Monday night, he wrote, "You make more sense that way."
As tempers continued to rise, the Deputy Finance Minister would have none of it.
"You have brains, utilise them," he said in a scathing retort to the NDC MP.
"Whether E-levy impacts tithing or not is a matter of common sense, not of IT deployment."
He went on to say that Mr George was purposely spreading lies "because we don't tax individuals for paying tithes, offerings, or Zakat."
"We're charging people for utilising an internet platform, and if they're charged for using a platform while paying their tithe, you can't just say one."
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