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 rationalizati on exercise scheduled for September of this year,” he said on May 7.
“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.
He said many others of the promises made in his 120-day social contract have been fulfilled.
“We made promises and we have delivered them,” he said.
“As promised, I compiled the list of my ministers within the first 14 days of my administration. They have since been vetted and have hit the ground running, ” President Mahama recounted.
On lean government, he noted that his administration has the smallest number of ministers so far,
” I have appointed only 56 ministers and deputies so far – the smallest number of ministers and deputies appointed by any government in the Fourth Republic. We have also nominated Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Chief Executives, and they are going through various phases of confirmation to complete the formation of our governance team at the local level,” he said.
“Building on my previous efforts, we have reworked and finalised a significantly improved version of the Code of Conduct for government appointees. This comprehensive document, launched last Monday, addresses new areas, including a prohibition on purchasing state property directly or indirectly, regulations regarding hampers, and clear monetary limits for official gigs. I have left my appointees in no doubt that I will bring down the hammer swiftly and strongly if they breach any of its provisions,” the President stated.
He said recommendations made at the National Economic Dialogue have been implemented.
“The implementation of these recommendations has begun to yield results. The currency is becoming fairly stable, inflation is inching downward, and we have reduced the excessive borrowing that had become the trademark of past governments. The report also provided valuable advice on promoting industrialised agriculture and aligning skills development with national priorities. We have taken this advice seriously, and implementation is underway, guiding our economic policy decisions,” he cited.
According to President Mahama, “Following the recommendations of the Dialogue, we have amended the Public Financial Management Act 2016 (Act 921) to introduce a debt rule that aims to reduce the ratio to 45% by 2034. We have also established an operational rule to post an annual primary surplus of at least 1.5% of GDP on a commitment basis. The amendment also allows for the establishment of an independent fiscal council to monitor the government’s adherence to the fiscal rules. This reform was executed in April 2025, before the September 2025 deadline under the IMF-supported Programme.
