MoMo transactions to be taxed – Communication Minister hints

The Minister for Communication and digitalisation, Ursula Owusu Ekuful has stated that the government is putting measures in place to properly tax digital transactions in the country.

Speaking on Ekosiisen on Accra-based Asempa FM, the minister noted that, it is time the country focuses its attention on taxing digital transactions to rope in some revenue to the state.

“Let’s wait for the experts looking into the policy on taxing the digital economy to bring their report and then we can talk about whether or not we can tax the telecommunication networks for their services. As an operator, you definitely resist any attempt to pay additional taxes and of course, that is normal because a lot of people do not like paying taxes”

“As policy-makers, we are looking at ways in which we can also maximize our revenue, the avenues for compromise are very limited, so let’s listen to both sides of the coin and allow the experts to also bring the middle grounds. The traditional sources of revenue that the government gets from Communication Services Tax is going down, the definition of what a communication tax is, needs to be reviewed in my opinion, because of the evolution of technology.

"The traditional voice review is also going down because today, a lot of people are using data platforms. For voice communication, hence the need to have a tax policy that can be rolled out on digital transactions platforms,” she said.

She noted that the demand on government for development projects are rising and the government needs to rope in revenue to develop the nation.