Passage of E-levy policy despite opposition will make MoMo unpopular – Association

The Mobile Money Vendors Association of Ghana has described as an unfair, government’s relentless campaign for the passage of the E-levy, despite information suggesting that volumes of transactions will reduce when the bill is approved.

A deputy Minister of Finance, John Kumah had disclosed that research available to the government points to the fact that transactions will reduce by 24% between the first six months of the policy.

Though the government says efforts are being put in place to reverse this trend, the General Secretary of the Association, Evans Otumfuor, said the only way out is to halt the tax policy.

“Government should just pause the decision to implement the levy. 24% reduction in MoMo transactions, should it go live, is a cause for us to worry about. It is not something that should be downplayed. What becomes of the very people who have invested in the industry? So we are only calling on the government to come to terms with the realities in the Mobile Money space. We seem to be operating in an industry where everybody is not perturbed about the deteriorating conditions. So if this levy is rolled out, it will make MoMo transactions very unpopular.”

The Mobile Money Association of Ghana has said it has been left out of the ongoing consultative engagements for the soon-to-be-rolled-out Electronic Transaction Levy.

The group, which has already petitioned the Minority caucus in Parliament to push for the rejection of the tax policy, says, implementing the measure without the inputs of its members will burden consumers and cripple its business operations.

“If the customer is not there, we the agents are also not there, so for the fact that there are going to be extra charges, it means that our businesses will be impacted. What we are telling the government is that we all have to sit down on how best we can model a tax that will not put either of the beneficiaries at a disadvantage. This is our position because the E-levy will have a toll on us”, General Secretary of the Association, Evans Otumfuor, said.

The agents argue that the passage of the bill will lead to over a million job losses, since it will discourage the usage of their services.

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