Parliament has approved an amendment to the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-levy) Act with the Minority playing a pivotal in ensuring that government maintained the GH¢100 Mobile Money threshold.
The legislature also approved the reduction of the Electronic Transfer Levy from 1.5 to 1 percent, effective 2023.
Government during the presentation of the 2023 Budget announced a reduction of the e-levy rate from 1.5% to 1% and wanted to remove the daily non-taxable threshold of GH₵100.
Debating the amendment of the Bill in Parliament on Wednesday, Ranking Member on the Finance Committee of Parliament, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson said the Minority would now support the levy to help the government rake in an amount of GH¢2.2 billion for 2023.
“The value of GH¢100 from the time the levy was introduced till today has been eroded. So I don’t know why that threshold should be removed. Our position is that, this levy should be removed completely. Since we haven’t been able to achieve that and government has reduced it from 1.5 to one percent, we cannot be the same people to oppose it.”
The 1.5% rate was a downward revision from the initially proposed 1.75%.
Despite the many agitations and rejections of the levy, the government said it was a significant revenue generation tax needed to shore up revenue for the economy.
Several months after the levy was implemented, the government said it could not generate the expected revenue from the levy.
Mobile money transactions between 2017 and 2021 increased from GH¢1.55 billion to GH¢9.86 billion, but the figure has since drastically reduced.
Further, Parliament has approved the 2.5 percent Value Added Tax increase proposed by the government effective 2023.
Ghanaians will thus pay more for goods and services in the ensuing year.
Despite the Minority’s opposition to the move, the House approved the motion after a head count offered the Majority 136 votes against the Minority’s 135 votes.
Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu said such approval would only worsen the economic hardship.
Parliament has approved the Appropriations Bill for the 2023 fiscal year. The bill captures all estimates of government’s planned expenditure.
The government intends to spend an amount of GH¢227 billion with GHS¢800 million from the Consolidated Fund and other public funds for 2023.
Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin led the house to approve the Bill. “The Appropriation Bill 2022 is duly read the third time and passed”, he said.
Ashantibiz
