Energy Minister Dr Mathew Opoku-Prempeh has said a lot of education is required on the e-levy that has been introduced in the 2022 budget statement.
Speaking on TV3, he said the levy affects specific truncations, not all.
“The implementation is going to come with the education of everything that is affected. For example, less than a hundred cedis transaction is not affected. There is a lot of education that needs to be done,” the Manhyia South Member of Parliament told TV3’s Johnnie Hughes on Thursday, November 18.
Meanwhile, his colleague lawmaker for Ningo Prampram, Samuel Nartey George has said the government did not engage the telecom companies before announcing the introduction of the tax on mobile money services in the 2022 budget statement.
“Let me state for the records that the government has not engaged any of the service providers in the telecoms space on how the draconian ‘digital tax’ would be implemented. How do you announce a tax when those to implement it & be affected by it are left in the dark? Clueless bunch,” he said in a tweet.
He added “The NCA and the Ministry of Communications are now inviting Telcos and Service providers in the space to a meeting on Friday to discuss the implementation of a policy announced in the budget? Such a clueless bunch of managers. Post facto thinking.”
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Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta announced a new levy to be charged by the government in 2022 on all electronic transactions to widen the tax net and rope in the informal sector.
“It is becoming clear there exists enormous potential to increase tax revenues by bringing into the tax bracket, transactions that could be best defined as being undertaken in the ‘informal economy’,” Mr Ofori-Atta observed on Wednesday, November 17 as he presents the 2022 budget statement in Parliament.
“After considerable deliberations, the government has decided to place a levy on all electronic transactions to widen the tax net and rope in the informal sector. This shall be known as the ‘Electronic Transaction Levy or E-Levy’.”
He explained that the new E-levy will be a 1.75 percent charge on all electronic transactions covering mobile money payments, bank transfers, merchant payments, and inward remittances to be borne by the sender except inward remittances, which will be borne by the recipient.”
This will, however, not affect transactions that add up to GH¢100 per day.
“A portion of the proceeds from the E-Levy will be used to support entrepreneurship, youth employment, cyber security, digital and road infrastructure among others.”
This new levy is scheduled to start Saturday, January 1, 2022.
In 2020, the total value of transactions was estimated to be over GH¢500 million with mobile money subscribers and users growing by 16 percent in 2019.
According to a Bank of Ghana report, Ghana saw an increase of over 120 percent in the value of digital transactions between February 2020 and February 2021 compared to 44 percent for the period February 2019 to February 2020 due to the convenience they offer.
This was definitely heightened by the advent of Covid-19, especially during the lockdown.
