Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, a former finance minister, has recommended that if the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy) is not bringing in enough money as anticipated, the Akufo-Addo administration should abolish it.
He called the E-Levy a “nuisance tax” and suggested that it be repealed if its revenue goals are not being met.
Dr. Duffuor stated during an appearance on Citi TV’s The Point of View: “We need to question ourselves: Are we getting enough out of it? If we aren’t making enough money from it, it is a waste of money and should be eliminated.
On January 11, 2023, the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications started implementing the new E-Levy rate of 1%.
This came when the government revised the 1.5% E-Levy reduced to 1% effective January 2023 at the 2023 Budget and Economic Policy Statement.
Since its inception, the E-Levy hasn’t, however, reached all of its income goals. Telcos reported a loss of over 300,000 mobile money customers in April 2022.
In April 2022, telecoms reported a loss of nearly 300,000 mobile money subscribers following the levy’s adoption.
The number of active mobile money customers fell from 18.9 million in March to 18.6 million in April, according to the Summary of Economic and Financial Data (May 2022).
Source: Mybrytfmonline.com/Joseph Asare
