Move to tax mobile money transactions draconian – Nana Aba Anamoah

General Manager for GHOne Television Nana Aba Anamoah has described the move by the government to tax mobile money transactions as draconian.

Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta while presenting the 2022 budget statement to Parliament in November said “It is becoming clear there exists the enormous potential to increase tax revenues by bringing into the tax bracket, transactions that could be best defined as being undertaken in the ‘informal economy”.

“After considerable deliberations, the government has decided to place a levy on all electronic transactions to widen the tax net and rope in the informal sector. This shall be known as the ‘Electronic Transaction Levy or E-Levy’.”

The Minister explained that the new E-levy will be a 1.75 percent charge on all electronic transactions covering mobile money payments, bank transfers, merchant payments and inward remittances to be borne by the sender except inward remittances, which will be borne by the recipient.

But Nana Aba Anamoah has expressed worry over the government’s decision to tax mobile money transactions in Ghana; a sudden shift from the position expressed by the Vice President of Ghana in 2020.

Making her disagreement known in a post shared on social media, she said “VP Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia] was of this view in August 2020. What happened? What changed? Where did this 1.75% on 100 cedis and above on MoMo come from?@nakufoaddo & Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia], this is draconian.1.75% on something that’s so frequently used? Ei”.