Majority of Ghanaians are said to have changed their behavior towards the electronic transfer of funds since the E-Levy kicked in back in May this year.

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According to a study, 83% of the populace felt compelled to do so in order to adjust to the limits introduced by the said levy as far as their livelihoods are concerned.

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These were part of research findings on the effect of the new tax slapped on citizens geared towards shoring up revenue for the government.

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The IMANI Digital Financial Services Research Project looked into the impact of the 1.5% tax on the coping mechanisms thereof.

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“To assess the impact of the e-levy on the use of digital financial services, we first assessed how often people use digital financial services accounts (such as mobile money) in a typical week and then asked further questions on how it has affected the volume of mobile money transactions they make.”

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Highlights of the report revealed that out of the 83% who reassessed their electronic financial dealings nearly half of them reduced the rate at which they engaged in MoMo transactions.

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“Of this number, about 47% indicated that they had reduced the number of mobile money transactions by about 51% to 100%,”

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“Another 25% indicated that they had reduced their transactions by about 10% to 50%. Only about 1.6% of respondents indicated that their transaction volumes have stayed or increased their volume.”

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Meanwhile, in terms of the regularity of transfers, the results were even.

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The June 22 report also found that “about 31% of respondents indicated that they make between 1-2, 3-5 or more than five transfers per week.”

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The study conducted by IMANI Centre for Policy and Education in collaboration with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).

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Source: Myjoyonline

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