COVID Levy Remains Despite End Of Covid In Ghana

It appears the COVID Health Recovery Levy will remain in force despite the declaration of an end to the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana.

President Akufo-Addo in his 29th Covid address to the nation on May 28, said the COVID taskforce declared the pandemic to be over in mid-May.

“In the light of these facts, the COVID-19 Taskforce, which I chair, met on 17th May and took some far-reaching decisions on the measures we have put in place for the management of the pandemic, which were announced by the Ghana Health Service on 19th May. The most important of these decisions was that the COVID-19 pandemic was over in Ghana.”

By that, it was expected that the Covid Levy would die out too but during the address, he implored Ghanaians to bear with the situation.

According to him, the levy was introduced to fill expenditure holes.

“The COVID Health Recovery Levy that was introduced to help fill some of the expenditure holes might not be the most popular tax, but I entreat all of you to bear with us.”

The Covid Levy, one of the numerous levies introduced by the government has been described by many as a “nuisance” tax since last year with a section of Ghanaians calling for its removal.

It was introduced through an ACT of Parliament in 2021 and imposed on goods and services and imports to raise revenue to support covid expenditures.

The Commissioner General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) is responsible for its collection and is bound by law to pay the money collected into the Consolidated Fund.