Should the country’s E-levy, 1.5 percent of digital money transfers above GHC100 per day remain in place, mobile money enterprises across the nation will be deprived of advancement and development.
It is for this reason, the National Chairman of the Mobile Money Operators, Evans Abotsi suggests that the government would have to take a more pragmatic decision to review downwards the E-levy policy.
“The sector is going to lose the needed growth that we are expecting. Businesses are further going to close down. Unemployment is really going to increase. Then again, the government is not going to be able to realise the revenue that it targeted. Then again, a lot of people would resort to the use of cash for the payment of goods and services.
Mr. Abotsi said this when he spoke on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Telecommunications Chamber has called for the reduction of the electronic transactions levy (E-levy) from 1.5 per cent to 0.1 per cent.
According to Dr Ken Ashigbey, the introduction of the e-levy at 1.5 per cent had proven counter productive to both the government and the development of Ghana’s digital economy.
He explained that while calling for a total scrap of the tax measure would be insensitive considering the government’s dire need for money amidst economic turmoil, reducing it to 0.1 per cent would revamp the digital economy thus generating more revenue for government.
Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express Business Edition on Thursday, he said, “Our proposition is the fact that, you know, they should scrap it. But we need to be real, the government needs money at this particular stage. The deficit position is not good for the industry, it affects the industry, and it’s one of the things that would account for the depreciation of the cedi. The macros would be destabilised.
He said “the best thing to do is to reduce the level. Some in the industry have talked about 0.5, but I have said that the best thing to do is to do 0.1 per cent.”
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
