The General Secretary of the Mobile Money Agents Association, Evans Otumfuo, has intimated that the Association is not in support of the E-levy but supports payment of taxes.
Reacting to reports suggesting that he expressed the Association’s support in a meeting with the President yesterday, May 10, 2022, he notified that it was not so.
“We don’t support it but then let me add that we are never against the payment of taxes. If there is any tax that does not support the growth and development of businesses, we will not support it. We are only hoping that government will also take in the feedbacks and review the policy.”
Evans Otumfuo
Contrary to previous comments made some time past that the E-levy will affect MoMo Agents, Mr. Otumfuo stated that as an Association, they are willing to drive communication to help the implementation and not that they are in anyway supporting it. This, he stated, will help protect their business.
“The support in this direction is very specific on the subject of educating Ghanaians and we believe that it is [in] our interest to protect the business and so, we needed to support government to drive home this education. So, its on the subject of education we are willing and ready to support government to ensure that the needed understanding will be achieved.”
Evans Otumfuo
According to Mr. Otumfuo, the Association’s mission was basically to draw government’s attention to the feedback that they have obtained so far, days after the implementation of the E-levy.
“And prior to the implementation, we had indicated that communication on the E-levy was low and so government should up the understanding regarding this whole E-levy because we believed that with the kind of understanding consumers were having, it was going to affect how they use the mobile money.”
Evans Otumfuo
The Association didn’t say 1.5 percent was good
Speaking about the commendations the Association gave to the President, Evans Otumfuo intimated that the Association didn’t say the reduction of the levy from 1.75 to 1.5 percent is best for them. “We only commended government for the fact that they had moved the levy from 1.75 to 1.5 percent.”
“It was only fair that we tell government that initially it wasn’t good but there has been a little bit [of] backwardness on the rate which we are hoping that, looking at the feedbacks that are coming, government should be willing to step down further on the rate from the current 1.5 to a rate that will be fine for all of us.”
Evans Otumfuo
The Association’s General Secretary noted that the Association drew the President’s attention to the challenges being faced but didn’t specify the number of MoMo agents who will be out of jobs. “That comment wasn’t made but there was a general statement of the challenges.”
Evans Otumfuo stated that prior to the meeting with the President, the Association had already drawn government’s attention to the challenges being faced. He stated that they were demanding the remedies government has put in place in resolving this or if it had other options available should they realize that the E-levy is going to the extreme level.
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