Earlier, it was reported that about 20.7% of Ghanaians are exploiting loopholes in the implementation of the Electronic Transaction Levy also known as e-levy, to avoid being taxed.
A study conducted by the IMANI Digital Financial Services Research Project team showed that less than a quarter of the population collaborates with mobile money vendors or merchants when engaging in transactions beyond GH100.
A 1.5% levy is currently applied on the value of transfers above the tax base on a daily basis.
But mobile money merchants or vendors are an exception under the current system and because of this, Ghanaians who are not in support of the levy, have decided to use these merchants to send or withdraw money above GHc100.
Touching on the issue, a member of the E-Levy Technical Committee, Patrick Frimpong Danso, earlier remarked that it is illegal for MoMo vendors to transfer money on an individual’s behalf to a different account.
“It is illegal. You can’t go to a vendor and say take GH¢200 and send it to someone for me. No. This thing has been happening for a long time but many don’t know it is illegal,” he told Joy News in an interview.
Meanwhile, in an interview on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show, Ernest Anabire, the Upper East Regional Vice-Chairman of Mobile Money Association of Ghana (MAG) baulked at the idea being mooted by the E-Levy Technical Committee, Patrick Frimpong Danso.
Mr. Anabire was extremely surprised by the utterances of the Committee Member. In his view, transactions made on behalf of customers is a practice that has existed since the inception of Mobile Money in Ghana.
For Mr. Anabire, it would be an unfounded decision, to suddenly make third-party transactions done by vendors illegal because the government is bent on making deductions.
“Before even the E-levy, if somebody wanted to send money, we would send. And the telcos made us understand that we do not charge customers when he is coming to send money to another person. But this whole issue of the third-party came along after the implementation of the E-levy. They say that now, sending money to another person’s account [on behalf of a customer] is considered illegal. We held a meeting and we made it clear that, if that is the case, then we do not know where we are headed to.”
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“We used to do them even before the passage of the E-levy. Nobody came out to say that it was illegal. And so if after you have brought the E-levy, you are pulling out this third-party issue saying it is illegal, then it is a problem. It is just because of the E-levy. It is not because it is illegal. That is posing a great toll on our work,” he said.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
