The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has assured that it is going to repay mobile money customers who are wrongfully overcharged, following the implementation of the 1% levy on electronic transfers.

The reduction of the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy) from 1.5 to 1 percent began on Wednesday January 11, 2023.

Prior to this, the reduction of the levy was made known in the 2023 Budget and Economic Policy Statement presented on the floor of Parliament in November 2022, by the Finance Minister, Hon Kenneth Ofori Atta.

Speaking in an interview, a Member of the E-levy Technical Committee of GRA, Opoku Afriyie Asante revealed that enough measures have been put in place to deal with the challenges of the revised levy.

“I would like to assure the general public that the Commissioner General is doing all that he can and if there are any system glitches the GRA would be available to reimburse if you are wrongfully deducted.”
Mr Asante

The e-levy had failed to meet all of its revenue targets since its introduction in March last year, with players in the tele-communication sector raising concerns over the practicality of operating an effective mobile money service with the levy in place.

After the implementation of the levy, the various telcos registered an over 300,000 loss of mobile money subscribers in April 2022. According to the Summary of Economic and Financial data just ahead of implementing the E-levy in May 2022 , active mobile money subscribers saw a decline in April to 18.6 million from the 18.9 million recorded the previous month.

The mobile money industry, also lost 4,000 active agents, as their number declined to 454,000 in April from the previous month’s 458,000 which is also reflected in the value of transactions, which dropped by GH¢2.8billion within the period under discussion.

The service providers are Airtel Mobile Commerce (Ghana) Limited, GCB G-Money, Mobile Money Limited, Vodafone Mobile Financial Services Limited and Zeepay Ghana Limited.

Background

The Mobile Money Agents Association of Ghana called for a reduction in the 1.5 percent electronic transfer levy rate to 0.1 percent prior to the reading of the 2023 budget presentation.

The 1.5 percent levy which was introduced in the 2022 budget formed part of the Government’s efforts at raising revenues locally.

But Momo transactions have recorded a significant decline since the levy’s introduction, a development that telecommunication companies and mobile money agents have raised concerns over.

The General Secretary of the Mobile Money Agents Association of Ghana, Mr. Evans Otumfour, expressed the displeasure of the Association over the levy which he revealed a reduction is critical to saving their businesses.

“It is quite very high and exorbitant and so considering how difficult the economy is, and how things are really getting inflated every now and then, the e-levy is really compounding the situation.”
Evans

The secretary was worried that if the 1.5 percent charge on every momo transaction was not reduced to encourage the use of the service, their businesses risk collapsing. He confirmed a significant drop in the volume of transactions since the levy’s introduction.

“This has really affected volumes of transactions. It has really affected growth in the space and so as an association, we will request that Government should further reduce the rate to at least 0.1 percent but if the 0.1 is becoming difficult, Government will have to get to the extreme and reduce it to 0.5 percent”
Evans