Mobile Money Association of Ghana (MMAG) in the Sekondi – Takoradi Metropolis has called on government to further reduce the charges on the Electronic Transfer Levy (e-levy) to avoid their businesses to fold up.
On November 17 2021, the Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori Atta announced during the presentation of the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Government to the Parliament of Ghana, the introduction of an “Electronic Transaction Levy” or “E-Levy” of 1.75 percent on electronic transactions above GHs 100 (US$16) per day to take effect from May 1, 2022.
The levy will be applied to mobile money payments, bank transfers, merchant payments, and inward remittances . In March 2022, Ghana’s Parliament approved the bill with 1.50 percent taxation on electronic money transfers.
All charges will be borne by the sender except in the case of inward remittances where the charge will be borne by the recipient.
According to the Finance Minister, the country’s total digital transactions for 2020 were estimated to be over GH¢500 billion (about US$81 billion) compared to GH¢78 billion (US$12.5 billion) in 2016.
As a result, Government is projecting to rake in tax revenue of about GH¢6.96 billion (US$1.1 billion) in 2022, and about GH¢26.90 billion (US$4.5 billion) from 2023 to 2025 after the implementation of the electronic transaction levy to help widen the tax net and rope in the informal sector.
Silas Abdallai, an Organizer of MMAG recounted how the e-levy implementation is having a toll on their business hence forcing them to lay off workers as there’s no money to pay salaries to employees.
He further added how their commission has been reduced from 0.20 pesewas to 0.16pesewas by the Telecos since the passage of the e-levy.
” For me, the government can consider repealing the levy or reducing it because subscribers cannot bear the cost. Before the rolling out of the e-levy, we get a commission of 20 pesewas on transactions made but it has been reduced to 0.16 pesewas, ” he said.
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Secretary of the Association, Ernest Damoah, agreed with this colleague but said government is charging more than what the Telecos are taking already. He said, the charges are too much for Ghanaians to bear in an the era of economic difficult.
The Association, nonetheless called for an intensive public education to provide accurate information to Ghanaians reduce spate of panic withdrawals.
