The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, is still surprised at the dissenting voices about the proposed E-levy in the 2022 budget statement.

He, however, expressed optimism that the policy will be approved but, in the event, it does not go through, he said, the government will turn to the petroleum sector for revenue.

Asked what the alternative is, in the event the E-levy fails, while speaking to journalists at a function in Accra on Friday, February 18, he said;

“There are always many alternatives but really, you are looking at the future and you are looking at ways we can solve the issue of the increased revenue and everybody participating.

The challenge is, for example, assuming you earn a million cedis a year and you transfer all of that through MoMo. What am I asking of you? ¢15,000. Is that what you have been fighting against? Or if you are a student and assuming your earn 100,000 cedis, which is unlikely, that means what, a 1500 cedis.

So you then begin to ask the question, what is it that we are fighting against? And if I have also said the first hundred cedis will not be a part of it which means 3000 monthly income.

The alternatives are many, you can go into petroleum, but is that really what you want? The mood of the country is different from the arithmetic in Parliament and that is why I have gone around.”

Mr Ofori-Atta had earlier ruled out returning to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for support to deal with the challenges that the local economy is going through at the moment.