The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunication, Dr. Ken Ashigbey, has bemoaned the changing tax modules imposed on network operators embarked on by government.
According to him, this situation could impede government’s quest to expanding communication infrastructure to the unserved and underserved population.
Speaking in an interview, Dr. Ashigbey revealed, stakeholder involvement will ensure that digital divide exists.
“We pay more than our fair share of the taxes. If you consider that for every one hundred cedis that comes into the industry as revenue, over forty eight goes back and it’s important that if you really want to push government of Ghana’s digitization agenda we engage properly, collaborate with government to ensure that we can reduce the incidence of taxes that are on the industry; so that we will be able to push government of Ghana’s digitization agenda, make sure that we can expand telecommunication infrastructure to the very last person.
“Ensure that the digital divide that exists, which is a developmental gap can be achieved and that can only happen when we work together with all stakeholders to ensure that we find the optimum level at which we should tax the industry”.
Dr. Ashigbey further intimated that, government needs to encourage the surge of fintechs input in the Telco industry via reduction of taxes, as this will ensure the development of the country
“It is important that we stop front loading the taxes. So, taxes like CST, we need to find ways of taking them out so that we can grow the pie and so that the corporate income taxes can increase; not only for our members but also the various business that are leveraging on the telecommunication sector. You know the boom that has happened in the fintech market and all of that, we need to encourage them, we need to make sure that their input to the work that they do which is telecommunication services is reduced, then they will be able to do a lot more and we will be able to pay a lot more and ensure that we can develop our country Ghana”.
Commenting on his expectation on tax reduction in the industry on network operators, he asserted that, for him, “CST has to go to zero”.
“We have to take CST completely there and then we need to then look into all the various levels… the issues of corporate taxes, even the PAYE incidents on individuals. If we can get a lot more people coming in and paying the taxes, these levels can come down and government can actually increase the amount of money that they collect”.
Meanwhile, the chamber has revealed that, the mobile network operators and infrastructure companies in 2019, made taxes and other remittances worth GHC 3.2 billion to support the socio-economic development of the country.
According to Mr. Ashigbey, the CAPEX investment has increased exponentially in the fiscal year.
“However, there is the need for policy to support and enable even more investment by all players into the ecosystem to meet customer demand for mobile services.
“The mobile industry believes that policy enablers such as tax reforms, tax rebates in relation to import of infrastructure and equipment’s could improve the affordability of mobile technology and services for customers yielding greater strides for all stakeholders in the long-term.”
