Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta
The Electronic Transfer Levy bill, 2021 has been submitted to parliament for approval
The bill is to impose a levy on electronic transactions
The levy was originally stated in the 2022 budget
Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta revealed that digital transactions have experienced a steady growth over the past five years but these are largely untaxed.
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According to him, while the industry grows, several government tax revenue sources are experiencing a decline in growth.
Revenue sources like Value Added Tax (VAT) and National Health Insurance Levy (NHIL) are directly impacted by the increasing use of digital payment systems which facilitate alternative shopping avenues that do not apply to the Value Added Tax and National Health Insurance Levy.
According to him, government is therefore, resolved, to take the needed steps to steadily improve domestic resource mobilisation and strengthen the competence of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) in assessing electronic tax handles without compromising the pro-poor interventions of Government.
Between 2017 to 2021, mobile money transactions increased from one hundred and fifty-five million Ghana Cedis to nine hundred and eighty-six million Ghana Cedis in Ghana.
These are what the nine clauses of the bill entails
