A tax expert has criticised the Ministry of Communications for issuing directives recently, on the way the 9% Communications Service Tax should be charged by the telecommunication companies in the country.
Mr William Owusu Demitia, discussing the issue in an interview on Joy FM’s Top Story, Monday October 14, 2019, said the three directives issued to the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) by the Communication Ministry via a letter to the regulator, the National Communications Authority (NCA), should have rather come from the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).
“The power to administer taxes, implement taxes and tax policy directives on its implementation emanates from the Ghana Revenue Authority, therefore, I would have loved that the Ministry of Communication would have been in touch with the Ghana Revenue Authority for them to issue the guidelines on implementation to the telcos because that is the proper way to go,” Mr Demitia said.
The comment by the tax expert adds to the mounting criticism against the three directives to the MNOs by the Ministry.
Mr Demitia told sit-in host, Evans Mensah, that under section 100 of the Revenue Administration Act the [GRA] has the power to give practice note on how a particular law will be implemented. If the GRA had come out to state how the tax should be implemented, nobody would have had cause to challenge it as is being done now.
Source: JoyBusiness