The government has been urged not to give in to pressure from outside sources to eliminate the COVID-19 Levy by Professor Justice Nonvignon, an associate professor and health economist at the School of Public Health, University of Ghana.

He added that the COVID-19 Levy should be maintained and set aside for the healthcare industry. He claimed that the COVID-19 Levy could raise between 100 and 600 million dollars for the government.

“One of the biggest mistakes we can make as a country is to put pressure on the government to scrap the Covid 19 levy, which has the potential of raising about 100 to 600 million dollars for the government. It must be earmarked for healthcare,” he stated.

Prof Nonvignon said this during the University of Ghana’s fifth Inaugural Lecture for the 2022/2023 academic year on the theme: “The Pursuit of Health Amidst Scarcity: Economics, Health and the Romance in-between”.

The lecture was held in honour of Prof. Nonvignon's achievement of the highest academic rank.

The government implemented the COVID-19 Health Recovery Levy in 2021 as a separate tax that is applied to the gross value of taxable supplies of goods and services made under the Standard Rate and VAT Flat Rate Schemes.

However, after the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared an end to COVID-19 as a public health emergency, calls have been made to the government to stop the one per cent tax.

Given the importance of research-focused institutions, Prof. Nonvignon stated that the levy should be designated specifically for the health sector. He also mentioned that Noguchi, for example, was crucial during the pandemic.

“The fund needs to be earmarked for something even if it cannot go into the health system fund. Call it COVID Emergency Levy, or Levy to eradicate malaria or something. That way, it can be monitored,” he added.

He said another way to improve health spending was to take advantage of special programmes to support health.

He noted that the 2023 budget outlined 16 special programmes with the total budget being 9 billion cedis.

“However, only one is health specific, that is, nursing training allowance. There should be the introduction of special programmes on malaria, mental health, communicable diseases, and neglected tropical diseases.”