The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Telecommunications Chamber, Kenneth Ashigbey has urged the government to work in preventing the consequences associated with passing the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-levy).
Speaking to Francis Abban on the Morning Starr on Friday, the Telecom Chamber boss said his outfit is engaging the Ministry of Finance in order to avoid the negative experiences with such a tax witnessed in other jurisdictions.
According to him, there have been a couple of meetings with the Minister in which they suggested that the levies were high adding that there are still ongoing engagements on the levy.
“We know that the levels are high and we are working with the government to ensure that if this tax is passed the unintended consequences that we have seen in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda do not arise. So we have talked about the issue of the discrimination of the tax and asking the government that you need to bring in the banks so as to put a cap on it,” he added.
He stated that the Chamber also suggested to the Minister that “let’s put a cap of let’s say 2,000 so that if I’m paying GHC5,000 so that’s beyond 2,000 the rates don’t go up again. We’re working with the government to see how we can ensure that if this is passed, we can put a cap on it, and bring the banks into the system.”
Mr Ashigbey also added that the Mobile Money sector cannot be classified as an informal sector, “I see them as our real economy.”
“As a country, we are also not oblivious to the fact that as a country we need to raise some revenue to be able to support developmental function. We cannot keep on borrowing and you may have to find a way to expand the tax net,” he added.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Isaac Dzidzoamenu
