More taxes will kill us – Michael Ikpoki

Despite its contribution to national development, the telecommunications industry remains one of the heavily taxed sectors of the economy.

According to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MTN Ghana, Michael Ikpoki, high cost of operation and pressure from increased taxes and levies are greatly affecting their operations.

He warned that the continuous increase in taxes will put a heavy burden on the operations of the sector. “If taxes continue to increase, it puts a lot of pressure on us as a business – and that has been a real concern to us,” the CEO emphasized.

He stated that in 2012, the company paid a total tax of about GHC448 million, explaining that for every GHC1 that is spent by a customer which comes to MTN as revenue, 31 per cent of that goes to taxes.

He noted that “we have tried to communicate clearly that this industry needs support in terms of putting in place the infrastructure needed to support the growing customer base and provide modern data services. And we hope government would grant our request.”

Mr. Ikpoki was addressing editors and media practitioners from various media houses during the 2013 Editors Forum in Accra.