Social Media Reacts As They Tested E-Levy Process

The implementation of the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-levy) commences today, May 1, as announced by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).

This means a rate of 1.5% will be imposed on all electronic transactions above GH¢100.00 starting Sunday.

Already, some Ghanaians have put the system to a test and have shared their experiences on Twitter.

According to some users, they engaged in transactions above the GH¢100 threshold, but did not experience the effect of the levy.

An amount of GH¢450 was used to test the system.

Service Charge

Before the inception of e-levy, the service charge for sending GH¢450 was GH¢4.50. But this time around, the sender was charged GH¢3.38.

This translates into a reduction in the rate from 1% to 0.75% as agreed by the Telecos earlier.

E-Levy

In addition to the service charge of GH¢3.38, it was realised that the sender was charged an extra amount of GH¢5.25, representing a rate of 1.50% not on the entire GH¢450 (transacted amount) but rather the value-added (GH¢350) using GH¢100 as the base line.

Total Charge

With a service charge of GH¢3.38 plus e-levy of GH¢5.25, it means, the sender was charged a gross amount of GH¢8.63 for sending an amount of GHC¢450.

What you need to know about E-levy

Electronic transactions that will not come with a 1.5% tax rate.

• A cumulative transfer of ¢100 made by the same person.
• A transfer between accounts owned by the same person.
• Transfers for the payment of taxes, fees and charges on the Ghana.gov platform
• Electronic clearing of cheques
• Specified merchant payments (that is, payments to commercial establishments registered with the GRA for income tax and VAT purposes)
• Transfers between principal, master agent, and agent’s accounts.

Transfers that will be affected include:

• Mobile money transfers done between accounts on the same Electronic Money Issuer.
• Mobile money transfer to a receiver on another Electronic Money Issuer [Interoperability transfer]
• Transfer from a bank account to [another person’s] mobile money account.
• From a mobile money account to [another person’s] bank account.
• Bank transfers on an instant paid digital platform.