Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, Dr. Ken Ashigey, has cautioned the government to take time in the implementation of the E-levy.
Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta while delivering the 2022 budget on Wednesday, November 17, 2021, proposed that a 1.75% levy on all electronic transactions will be effective January 1, 2022.
Dr Ken Ashigey has indicated that rushing the process of implementing the proposed E-levy in its current form will erode the gains made in the Telecommunications industry.
"We are not oblivious of the fact government needs revenue and one of the sources for revenue is taxation, but we need to be able to do it without any of the unintended consequences of reversing our digitalization quest our financial inclusion.
"Government in the same policy statement talks about job creation, about entrepreneurship. We need to ensure that we can do all of this without necessarily reversing the enviable gains Ghana has made as our financial services are concerned", he said on TV3.
Dr. Ken Ashigey added that the Telecommunications Chamber will engage relevant stakeholders to review the proposed 1.75% levy taxation on all electronic transactions.
"There have been a lot of engagements between industry and the Ministry of Finance, Bank of Ghana, Ministry of Communication after the policy was announced in Parliament and we have actually submitted papers to that effect, and we are even in the process of also going to turn in a paper to Parliament now that it is going to be considered. We hope that we can do this", he added.
A Facebook post on November 30, 2021, by the Chief Executive Officer of Afb Ghana, operators of Qwikloan services on MTN, forewarned that the service will cease its operations should the government go ahead with the E-levy in its current shape.
"Four years ago today, together with our partners MTN and Jump, we launched what has arguably become Ghana’s most utilized financial product -Quick loan. In the 4 years that Qwikloan has been in existence, we have disbursed over Ghc7billion to well over 4.2 million people. Interesting that the Qwikloan anniversary comes at a time when heated discussion on the E-Levy rages on,” Arnold Parker stated.
Also, a section of Ghanaians including the Minority in Parliament and some economists have kicked against this proposal.
The opposers argue that the move will intensify the hardships of the average Ghanaian.
But the government insists that the new form of taxation will stimulate the growth of the economy and create more jobs.