Reduce E-Levy rate from 1.5% to 0.1% – Telco Chamber advocates

The Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications is advocating for a reduction in the rate for the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy) from its current 1.5 percent to 0.1 percent.

The call, which was made by the Chief Executive Officer of the Chamber, Dr Ken Ashigbey, explained that the tax measure has proven to be counterproductive, especially on government's revenue and the country’s digital economy.

Speaking in an interview with Accra-based Joy New, Dr. Ashigbey said a reduction in the E-Levy rate would ensure government meets a rather realistic revenue target.

“Our proposition is the fact that, you know, they should scrap it. But we need to be real, government needs money at this particular stage. The deficit position is not good for the industry, it affects the industry, it’s one of the things that would account for the depreciation of the cedi and destabilization of the macro indicators,” he is quoted by Joy Business.

“So, we think that the best thing to do is to reduce the level. Some in the industry have talked about 0.5 percent, but I have said that the best thing to do is to do 0.1 percent,” Dr Ashigbey suggested.

The Telco Chamber boss further called on government to place a cap on the E-Levy as he believes the existing cap-less system makes the measure less desirable to conduct transactions with large sums of money via digital platforms.

MA/FNOQ

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