The President of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA), Dr Joseph Obeng, has called on government to widen the tax net to include more people following the implementation of the controversial e-levy.

Dr Obeng expressed that he is in favour of any “tax system that will enhance tax expansion”. However, he noted that the rate for taxes must be affordable for Ghanaians to pay. According to him, the affordability of the “rate is always very important for us so that everybody will comply with the tax system that is being introduced”.

“… It’s a tax system that has been introduced by government and we are traders… what I will say is that normally, any government or any tax administration wants to enhance on revenue collection and then one way that we’ve all been proposing is that we should expand it… The tax net should be widened to rope in more people… So, any system that will widen the tax net, that will make sure that taxes are not being put on just one sector of the business community or on the [few] people in the country, then I’m for it.”
Dr Joseph Obeng

Dr Obeng indicated that when taxes are not expanded to include other people within the tax bracket, traders will bear the brunt of any tax initiative by government. He explained that if government wants tax, the first area that they consider is “the duties that we pay and then they increase the duties”.

“So, if the tax net is expanded and widened, it means that a lot more people are being enrolled in the tax net and for that matter, I think we should move on with it and try to comply with it.”
Dr Joseph Obeng

Education on e-levy

Interacting with the Vaultz News, Dr Obeng urged the Ghana Revenue Authority to focus more on educating Ghanaians on the various charges of e-levy and transactions on mobile money to avert concerns of overcharging.

“These are the areas that Ghana Revenue and government have to dwell on, education so that people might not unnecessarily be surcharged or overcharged because of the e-levy. In that area, then I support any call for education. I support any call for education so that people will actually understand and nobody will be unnecessarily or overly surcharged with the levy.”
Dr Joseph Obeng

Commenting on the reception of the e-levy implementation among traders, the GUTA President opined that he has not received any complaint as “people are already used to it”. He revealed that mobile money transfer is just complementary, as such, it does not put any unnecessary burden or pressure on doing business.

“The only thing is an additional levy being paid, otherwise this thing has been in the system and it’s not a new system that you’ll say it’s creating a new problem. We also have our traditional way of doing business… I don’t think it’s even going to cause add-up cost to doing business. I think it’s very normal.”
Dr Joseph Obeng

Dr Obeng noted that the mobile money tax is not going to add any “additional cost to increase price hikes” as traders can opt for the traditional means of payment. He indicated that for ease of doing business, the momo system is more flexible and more accepted norm to trade business. That notwithstanding, the GUTA President explained that there are other options of transaction traders can opt for if momo transaction proves costly.

“… I’m saying that it’s not going to lead to a price hike. The reason why I’m saying this is that we have our traditional way of doing business and you can opt for any of the ways of transacting business. If you want to make payment you can call the one you are paying to come over to collect his money or you can send the money through the mainstream bank where nothing is deducted from your account or use the momo system. That’s what I said we have the traditional way and this one came as a complement.
Dr Joseph Obeng