It’s not true; government won’t impose BoG recapitalisation levy – Dr John Kumah to Ato Forson

A Deputy Minister of Finance, Dr John Ampontuah Kumah has denied claims by the Minority Leader, that government intends to introduce a Bank of Ghana (BoG) recapitalization levy for Ghanaians to pay.

Dr Ato Forson at a press conference on Tuesday, August 8, said the government plans to introduce the levy to prevent the central bank from collapsing due to its recent losses.

“The IMF has made offers to assist the government to develop a plan for the recapitalization of the Central Bank.”

“That is why paragraph 18 of Ghana’s Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policy (MEFP) sent to IMF stated this fact.”

“Let me assure you that very soon, Ghanaians will be made to pay for Bank of Ghana recapitalization levy, a tax to recapitalize the Bank of Ghana, because the central bank has collapsed virtually,” the Minority Leader claimed.

However, the Deputy Finance Minister in a Facebook post on Wednesday, August 8, denied the claim outrightly.

The Ejisu MP said the government will not introduce such a levy as the Bank of Ghana is strong.

According to him, the BoG is in a solid, and Ghanaians should ignore the propaganda of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).

“Ignore this funny NDC Propaganda about the collapse of the Bank of Ghana (BoG). BoG is Solid!”

“The NDC is funny! It’s not true that a recapitalization levy is to be introduced for BoG, the Central Bank hasn’t collapsed.”

“The main source of income to the Bank is from government transactions i.e. fees and charges on all government transfers, the bank’s investments in marketable instruments, and also earnings from non-marketable holdings of the Bank,” he said.