The Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications has disclosed that the Ghana Revenue Authority will on May 5, address the various complaints that have been received so far concerning the implementation of the 1.5% electronic transfer levy.
The Ghana Revenue on May 1, 2022, began the implementation of the E-Levy on electronic transfers in the country.
The move according to the government is to help widen the country’s tax net and ensure that the informal sector is contributing to national development by paying taxes.
Revenue from the E-Levy is expected to among other things help the government’s flagship YouStart program which is expected to provide about 1m jobs for Ghanaians.
But after barely 72 hours of the E-Levy, there have been numerous complaints about some deductions that were not stated by the GRA in its guidelines prior to the implementation.
CEO of the Telecoms Chamber, Dr. Kenneth Ashigbey, in a CitiBusiness News interview noted that these challenges have arisen from misinformation and low education on the scope of the E-Levy. In this light, he noted that the Ghana Revenue Authority is embarking on a comprehensive education campaign to address these issues.
“The agency leading the communication campaign is GRA due to the fact that this is a tax-related project. We have a strategy in place. On Thursday, May 5th there will be a press conference where the Commissioner-General will address concerns and take questions. We also have our scheduled media engagements which we’ve already started on TV and radio. We’ll soon start rolling out some above-the-line campaigns as well as some posters, SMS’s and FAQ’s. We also have call centers set up by all the charging entities and the GRA itself, which will help with the education.”
“So all of these have been planned and will be rolled out as the days go by to ensure that we are able to get the understanding to the people. Because that is the key thing. The assumption is that all the errors that are being made and the miscommunication are from a genuine lack of knowledge,” he added.