Government to impose 1.75% levy on electronic transactions
E-levy to come into effect beginning 2022
The founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Atta Mills Institute, Samuel Koku Anyidoho, has pointed out what he says is the biggest challenge with the government’s Electronic Transactions (E-levy) tax policy.
According to the former Deputy General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress, the decision by government to impose a 1.75% levy on all electronic transactions including mobile money transfers is in defiance of the principles of taxation.
While agreeing on the need to widen the nation’s tax net, Mr Anyidoho in an interview with Kessben FM monitored by GhanaWeb, stated that the E-levy promotes double taxation and will compound the tax burden on the Ghanaian citizens.
“For the E-levy, the biggest challenge with the E-levy is that it defies even basic principles of taxation."
“If I’ve earned a salary and I’ve paid my income tax that income has been taxed ab initio but I decide that I will send something to Kessben morning show because you are my friend, that money that I am sending this morning is not income, and it is money that has been taxed already. So if I decide to send ten Momo’s this morning, all the ten different ones will be taxed based on the same income that has already been taxed at the base,” he stated.
The E-levy which the government intends to implement from the beginning of next year was announced in the 2022 government budget and economic policy.
While the government touts the policy as necessary to increase and widen government’s revenue portfolios, some critics and the opposition have mounted a resistance against the policy.
Watch the interview with Samuel Koku Anyidoho below:
