Government projects GH¢7 billion revenue from the E-levy in 2022
Learn from the mistakes of other countries, Deloitte to government
Accounting and auditing firm, Deloitte, wants government to consider making the e-levy a temporary tax measure should it be implemented.
According to the firm, the e-levy may affect the progress made by the country in the digital financial sector.
“If at all the E-levy is implemented, government could consider making this policy a temporary measure to avoid the erosion of gains made in the financial inclusion policy," George Ankomah, Partner, Tax and Legal stated.
Mr Ankomah made these comments at Deloitte’s economic dialogue on the 2022 budget, on the theme 'Digitalization as a Catalyst for Economic Recovery and Growth'.
The auditing firm also suggested that government should infer from the mistakes that other countries that have already implemented the digital tax have made to guide them.
“We recommend that as government works on designing an implementation framework for the E-levy, it also draws on lessons from the challenges other countries have encountered with the imposition of similar digital levies. More importantly, it is our view that Government explores other means of roping in the informal sector into the tax net which targets actual income generated by the informal sector players."
According to them, government must address all the concerns raised by the public, regarding the budget, particularly the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy).
The government had projected to generate about ¢7 billion revenue from the E-levy in 2022. After the announcement of the 1.75 % electronic levy by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, stakeholders have expressed concerns over the possible erosion of gains made from the digital sector.
Deloitte, however, lauded government’s initiative to replace the Tax Identification Numbers (TINs) with the Ghana Card and the merger of the National Identification Authority (NIA) numbers with the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) numbers of Ghanaians will assist in widening the tax net by providing unique identifiers for all transactions and enhance revenue mobilization.
“Government’s initiative to introduce a Unified Common Platform to facilitate property tax assessment and collection is timely as such a digitised platform will enhance revenue mobilization from property tax and increase overall revenue. According to Ghana’s 2021 Population and Housing Census, there are over 10.7 million structures in Ghana of which only a handful are in the database of MMDA’s for the purposes of property rates. This means there is some potential for government to make some significant revenues if property taxes are properly implemented and administered."
Deloitte