Data from the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has disclosed that the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy) – a levy charged on all electronic transfers of money apart from those excluded by law, generated Ghc 861.47 million as of March 2023.
The E-Levy concept was introduced and implemented in May 2022 to enhance domestic tax mobilization, expand the tax base and provide an opportunity for everyone to contribute towards national development.
The contentious 1.5% levy collected Ghc 614.57 million in the first year of implementation. However, in the first three months of 2023, the fee exceeded by Ghc246.9 million for the state.
According to the data from the GRA, the E-levy registered Gh¢53.58 million revenue in the first month (May 2022) of its implementation.
It further shot up to Gh¢59.23 million in June 2022 and consistently rose in July 2022 (¢65.0 7million), August 2022 (¢71.29 million), September 2022 (¢78.95 million), October 2022 (¢85.73 million) and November 2022 (¢93.3 million) respectively.
In December 2022, the Electronic Transfer Levy inflows surpassed one hundred million cedis, reaching Ghc 106.79 million.
Nonetheless, it began the year with lesser income than in December 2022. This was after the rate was reduced from 1.5% to 1%.
Records Of E-Levy
In January 2023, the E-Levy inflow was estimated at ¢85.93 million. It then plummeted to Ghc 73.99 million, a 13.9% decrease in February 2023.
However, the E-Levy was Ghc86.98 million in March 2023, bringing the total receipts in the first quarter of 2023 to Ghc246.9 million.
The government had set an E-levy target of approximately Ghc7 billion for 2022. However, due to the implementation delay, the target was reduced many times to around 800 million in the first month of implementation.
Despite the outrage over the E-Levy’s adoption, total mobile money transactions exceeded Ghc1 trillion in 2022.
E-Levy transactions covered; mobile money transfers between accounts on the same electronic money issuer (EMI), mobile money transfers from an account on one EMI to a recipient on another EMI, transfers from bank accounts to mobile money accounts, transfer from mobile money accounts to bank accounts, Bank transfers on a digital platform or application which originate from a bank account belonging to an individual to another individual.
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