According to the 2022 budget read by the Finance Minister, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, the government will introduce a levy on all mobile money and other electronic transactions. This proposed levy will be 1.75% charges on the above transactions above Ghs100 per day. The budget was presented on 17th November, 2022.
The government with this initiative is of the view that by scrapping road tolls and tax such transactions, much revenue can be raised for development.
Further, he explained that, this levy won’t affect certain kind of people thus, people whose monthly transactions totaled at Ghs3,000.
This levy will be known as Electronic Transaction Levy or E-Levy he said. Part of the revenue raised from this tax will be used to help entrepreneurs, youth employment, cyber security, digital and road infrastructure and more.
In other aspects, the finance minister indicated the just ended Population and Housing Census put the country’s total population at 30.8 million of which 2,374,348 representing 8.2% are tax payers.
“It is becoming clear there exists enormous potential to increase tax revenues by bringing into the tax bracket, transactions that could be best defined as being undertaken in the ‘informal economy’.
“After considerable deliberations, government has decided to place a levy on all electronic transactions to widen the tax net and rope in the informal sector. This shall be known as the ‘Electronic Transaction Levy or E-Levy.”
“A portion of the proceeds from the E-Levy will be used to support entrepreneurship, youth employment, cyber security, digital and road infrastructure among other.”
