Ghanaians who are opposed to the Electronic Transaction Fee, or E-levy, have been advised not to go beyond the GH100 threshold, which triggers a 1.5 percent levy.
Mr Ofori-Atta, the Finance Minister, speaking at a news conference on Thursday, May 12, encouraged people who think the E-levy is regressive to stretch out transactions that cost more than GH100 to avoid being taxed.
He maintained that the government does not want to burden the underprivileged in society, hence electronic transactions below GH100 will not be taxed.
“We were also clear on the issue of regressive taxes which says you don’t over tax the poor and so the first 100 cedis was not levied. That is about 3000 cedis a month in effect.
“We know our salaries are not that high. So truly, most of those that advocate that it is a regressive tax are not affected at all.
“If you have 200 cedis, I’m sure you can do it in two days so there will be zero impact.”
The government, according to the minister, feels that E-commerce has a vast market that may create significant revenue for the country.
What you need to know about E-levy
Electronic transactions that will not come with a 1.5% tax rate.
- A cumulative transfer of ¢100 made by the same person.
- A transfer between accounts owned by the same person.
- Transfers for the payment of taxes, fees and charges on the Ghana.gov platform
- Electronic clearing of cheques
- Specified merchant payments (that is, payments to commercial establishments registered with the GRA for income tax and VAT purposes)
- Transfers between principal, master agent, and agent’s accounts.
Transfers that will be affected include:
- Mobile money transfers done between accounts on the same Electronic Money Issuer.
- Mobile money transfer to a receiver on another Electronic Money Issuer [Interoperability transfer]
- Transfer from a bank account to [another person’s] mobile money account.
- From a mobile money account to [another person’s] bank account.
- Bank transfers on an instant paid digital platform.
Source: The Independent Ghana
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