We are major stakeholders but the government is not consulting us on the E-levy – Mobile Money Agents
As the government races against time to implement the Electronic Transaction levy, the Mobile Money Agents Association of Ghana are complaining that they have been left out of the ongoing engagements on the levy.
Initially, the group has already petitioned the Minority in Ghana’s legislature to reject the policy arguing that this measure without suggestions from its members will burden customers which will lead to the collapse of their business.
“If the customer is not there, we the agents are also not there, so for the fact that there are going to be extra charges, it means that our businesses will be impacted. What we are telling the government is that we all have to sit down on how best we can model a tax that will not put either of the beneficiaries at a disadvantage. This is our position because the E-levy will have a toll on us”, General Secretary of the Association, Evans Otumfuor, said.
They further lamented that the passage of the bill will lead to over a million job losses since it will discourage the usage of their services.
As part of consultations, the government will host a number of town hall meetings on the controversial levy. The first one took place in Koforidua on Thursday.
This forms part of a series of engagements the government has planned with the aim of explaining the importance of the E-levy as well as taking feedback and inputs from relevant stakeholders on the levy.
The government also says the feedback will inform it on the implementation of the levy.
Evans Otumfuor also complained about the Finance Ministry’s failure to consult the agents ahead of the rollout of the policy.
“As of now, the Ministry of Finance, which is the chief driver of this policy, has not seen the need to engage us as a major stakeholder. You can introduce a policy, but implementation is another thing because we are going to be implementers of this policy. So I just really don’t know how the government defines the scope of stakeholders whereby they are excluding the Mobile Money agents.”
The Majority have justified that, the levy will help the government raise the needed revenue to meet the infrastructural demands of the country.
It among others imposes a 1.75% charge on all electronic transactions above a GHC100 threshold.
By: Stella Annan | myactiveonline.com Twitter @activetvgh
