E-levy will enable us to construct more roads – Finance Ministry
The Finance Ministry has clarified that the proposed 1.75% E-levy will not be charged on the receiver but only the sender.
Whiles briefing the press on Friday 19th November 2021 the Ministry indicated that it is only the sender who will bear the cost of the said levy and also pointed out that the levy did not cover Ghc 100 to be sent in a day.
“For instance, if you’re sending GH¢500 to your mother, the first GH¢100 on that GH¢500 is exempted. You will be charged the 1.75% on the GH¢400 of the money that you’re sending. Your mother on the other hand will not pay anything for withdrawing the money,” Deputy Minister of Finance, Dr John Kumah explained at the conference.
According to the Deputy Minister, the said levy will also not cover traditional bank transfers and cheques.
“If you transfer to a MoMo or the traditional transfers that the banks do, the e-levy will affect the bank fees and not the customers’ funds,” he told journalists.
“You won’t pay anything on all transactions from your bank account to your MoMo account. And if you transfer money from your bank account to your MoMo account, you won’t pay anything. It is when you transfer MoMo from your account to another account that the levy will apply,” he added.
The levy is also said to cover Merchant Payments since using the Point of Sale device and the QR code are regarded as digital transactions and are covered by the levy.
E-Commerce and online services will be charged based on goods and services Dr Kuma indicated.
The E-levy as announced by the Finance Minister during the 2022 Budget presentation in Parliament on Wednesday, intends to now impose a 1.75% tax on mobile money and other electronic transactions that exceed GH¢100.00 per customer per day.
The proposal will come into full force after the Budget has been approved by Parliament.
In defence of the tax introduced, the Government targets to grow domestic revenue by 44% next year, and had projected the E-levy to accrue about GH¢6.5 billion next year. This, Dr Kumah said was necessary for the government to implement mechanisms to shore up domestic revenue to enable it to carry out its developmental agenda.
In a bid to resonate with the economic plight of some citizens government decided to limit the E-levy to transactions that exceeded 100 cedis.
He backed this decision with research conducted by consultants contracted by the Ministry that revealed that about 40% of Mobile Money users either sent or received less than GH¢100.00 per day.
He also said the government’s decision to abolish road tolls in the interest of the state, emphasising that the E-levy will make up for the GH¢78 million generated annually from the collection of the tolls.
“I would like to assure the public that this E-levy that we are introducing, we are going to see aggressive road construction in this country.”
“When we all accept the levy, what it will mean is that contractors can be paid on time and more roads can be constructed in our country,” he said
By: Stella Annan | myactiveonline.com Twitter @activetvgh
