GRA has not paid US$40m for a system to implement E-Levy – Commissioner-General

No contract has been signed with a 3rd party to implement E-Levy, GRA Commissioner

Systems to be used for E-Levy implementation belongs to GRA – Dr. Owusu-Amoah

E-Levy implementation: Why pay $40m for a system that we already have at NCA? – Sam George

Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Rev Dr. Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah, has denied allegations that the authority has contracted the services of a third party to monitor the collection of the E-Levy.

He said that the GRA has not signed a contract with any entity worth US$40.

He added that the authority will not engage in activities that are contrary to the Electronic Transfer E-Levy (E-Levy) Act.

“Clause 6.2 of the E-Levy Act does state that the Commissioner-General shall not for the purpose of this act engage a 3rd party service provider for a fee or a commission for the purpose of ensuring revenue monitoring and revenue assurance.

“As far as GRA is concerned we will always want to ensure that we are obeying the law ... So, I want to assure that as much as the law describes and prescribes this, we will be compliant with the law and we want to assure Ghanaians that we will abide by the law.

“We have not signed any contract with anybody to pay $40 million as I have heard in some platforms for such purpose and therefore it is inaccurate for anybody to say that we have signed a contract to pay $40 million,” he said in a JoyNews interview monitored by GhanaWeb.

He also explained that the E-Levy law does not prohibit the authority from engaging people to come up with a system to collect the levy and that the authority will use one of the systems it has acquired for the implementation of the levy.

“… as an entity (GRA), we have in house software developers, we have other third-party organisations that work with us … as so whatever we do it in the name of GRA,” he added.

Meanwhile, Ningo-Prampram MP, Sam Nartey George, has questioned the rationale behind the alleged plans of the government to purchase a system worth US$ 40 million for the implementation of the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy).

In a tweet shared on April 21, 2022, Sam George said that there is no need to purchase the system because the government has a system at the National Communication Authority (NCA) which can perform the same function.

According to the Member of Parliament (MP), the system will be bought from ExpressPay and will be to the benefit of some officials of the Ghana Revenue Authority and the finance ministry.

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