Ken Ashigbey wants more engagement prior to implementation
Ken Ofori-Atta has delivered the 2022 budget statement
Chief Executive of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, Ken Ashigbey has disclosed that government had no stakeholder engagement with the telco industry prior to announcing the 1.75% electronic transaction levy.
Delivering the 2022 Budget Statement before Parliament, Ken Ofori-Atta announced to lawmakers, the e-levy charge, slapped on digital transactions, covering Mobile Money, bank transfers and others.
He explained the move forms part of efforts to rope in the informal sector into the tax net and shore up more revenue for the government.
But Ken Ashigbey reacting to the development in an interaction with Asaase News said no broad stakeholder consultation was had in order to provide further details on the tax policy.
“These are some of the things we have been advocating with the government because in the past when we’ve had some of these stakeholder engagements with the government ahead of the announcement, we’re able to shape it well. But in this particular case, there was no engagement directly on the E-levy,” Ashigbey told the portal.
“We had known that some taxes were coming because the Chamber sits on Social Partnership Council with the government and we’ve had some discussions ahead of the tax concerning the budget but we didn’t go into details so the simple answer is that there were no engagements,” he is quoted by Asaase News.
The Telco Chamber CEO however said it expects the government to further engage key players in the telecommunications industry prior to the implementation of the tax policy.
Meanwhile, the Electronic Transaction levy will be waived for transactions that amount to GH¢100 or less in a day or approximately GH¢3,000 per month.
The implementation of the new levy is expected to take effect from January 1, 2021 once the appropriation of the 2022 Budget Statement is passed by Parliament. Read Full Story
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