"Post-COVID Economic Crisis, Citizen-state Relations, and the Electronic Transactions Levy (E-levy) controversy in Ghana"

The article on "Post-COVID Economic Crisis, citizen-state Relations, and the Electronic Transactions Levy (E-levy) Controversy in Ghana", by Emmanuel Kumi from the Centre for Social Policy Studies (CSPS), University of Ghana and Michael Kodom and Kofi Takyi Asante from the Institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research, University of Ghana is available online.

In 2021, the Government of Ghana sparked controversy by introducing the Electronic Transactions Levy (E-Levy) as part of an aggressive programme of revenue mobilisation in response to the debt-induced economic crisis that swept through the Global South in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper contributes to the literature on the politics of economic crisis by demonstrating the consequences of prioritising revenue mobilisation over social protection during times of economic shocks. Drawing on in-depth interviews with a range of respondents, we argue that the outrage triggered by the introduction of the E-levy was rooted in longstanding grievances against the lack of reciprocity in citizen-state relations and an apparent breakdown of the fiscal contract.