Most of our members will lose their business – MoMo Agents Association cry over E-levy
Some members of the Mobile Money Agents Association have started crying out over the passage of the E-levy bill as they say it might lead to most of its members closing down their mobile money businesses.
“We may be tempted to withdraw our services because the service already is not all that lucrative,” the General Secretary for the association, Evans Otumfour, said in a Citi News interview.
“A lot of our people will definitely be out of business… when the policy was announced, there was a sharp decline or drop in the use of mobile money,” he added.
The 1.75 per cent levy which was reduced to 1.5 per cent on, Tuesday, March 29, 2022, will be a tax on electronic transactions, which includes mobile money payments.
The government has argued that the levy would widen the tax net and that could raise an extra GH¢6.9 billion in 2022.
Ghana’s legislature passed it in the absence of the Minority MPs who had walked out before the Bill was considered for the third time.
The minority caucus also complained that it had been blindsided by the unexpected laying of the controversial bill. They since revealed their decision to challenge the passage of the levy at the Supreme Court.
Briefing the press on Tuesday, Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, said the passage was unconstitutional, as Parliament did not have the required numbers to make a decision on the E-levy.
“I think they have to come again on E-levy because as of today, I don’t think they had the numbers to say that the E-levy has been passed. We will question this decision in [the Supreme] court on the basis of the earlier ruling and on the basis of the fact that they said we can’t make a decision with 137 [members], but they can take with 137,” he said.
