The Centre for Policy Scrutiny has called on the government to consider reinstating abolished taxes, including the E-Levy, COVID-19 levy, and betting tax, as a means to strengthen domestic revenue and ease fiscal pressures.
These taxes were scrapped by the government as a fulfilment of a campaign promise made leading to the 2024 general election. The government described these taxes as ‘nuisance’ and were over burdening Ghanaians who already are made to pay other levies and taxes.
Speaking at a presentation organised by the Centre on Tuesday, April 7, 2026, tax analyst Isaac Danso Agyiri argued that the three taxes, if restructured, could generate up to GHS18 billion in 2027, providing a timely boost amid rising government expenditure and tightening liquidity.
He stressed that the scrapped taxes should not be dismissed outright but adapted to current economic realities.
“The first way to do that is, for example, increase the threshold, the daily minimum threshold… if you factor in inflation and cost of living, can we, for example, put a GHS500 daily threshold so that if your transaction is up to five hundred a day, you don’t pay E-Levy?” Agyiri asked.
He also proposed introducing maximum caps on transactions to ensure fairness. “Can we also, for example, put a maximum threshold and say that the maximum E-Levy you pay on a transaction is up to, say, GHS100… These are all ways we can work it to address the equity situation,” he added.
Mr Agyiri further suggested that revenue from reinstated taxes could be ring-fenced for pro-poor policies, ensuring that the burden of taxation aligns with social equity.
