The Minister of State at the Finance Ministry, Charles Adu-Boahen, seems to have contradicted the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta on whether bank transfers would be under the 1.75 percent Electronic Transaction Levy or not.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, the Minister “said bank transfers are not included in this tax.”
Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta had included bank transfers in the transactions affected by the levy.
The levy is meant to widen the tax net and rope in the informal sector.
“Electronic transactions covering mobile money payments, bank transfers, merchant payments and inward remittances will be charged at an applicable rate of 1.75%, which shall be borne by the sender except inward remittances, which will be borne by the recipient,” Mr. Ofori-Atta said when he presented the 2022 budget statement in Parliament on Wednesday, November 17, 2021.
The levy will exempt daily transactions of a cumulative value of GH¢100 or less, per person.
In the budget, the recommended date for the levy to take effect was January 1, 2022.
According to the budget, up to 0.25 percentage points of the 1.5 percent e-transaction levy or 16.7 percent of the yield from the levy, should be used to support road infrastructure development.
Ten percent of the 0.25 percentage points, i.e. 1.67% of the yield from the levy, should be dedicated to the improvement in public transportation, including the purchase of buses.
The levy has sparked controversy because of its impact on mobile money transactions and poor Ghanaians that use it.
The Minority in Parliament has already served notice it will fight against this levy for that reason.
But M. Boahen said the government’s analysis showed that the levy won’t affect 40 percent of Ghanaians.
“We did some surveys and analysis and realized that about 40 percent of transfers are below GH¢100, so essentially 40 percent of the populace are protected from this levy. And so we believe that, by far, it takes care of the vulnerable in society,” he said.
