The Mobile Money Agents Association of Ghana (MMAG) has kicked against the additional imposition of 10 percent tax on the earnings of its members – mobile money agents.
According to the Association, its members cannot bear any extra financial levy on their operations.
Government, in a new directive, has asked telecommunication companies in the country to deduct a 10 percent tax from the cash-out service of MoMo agents.
The new directive by government implies MoMo agents will now be paying a total of 20 percent tax on their earnings on a monthly basis.
Efforts to engage government and other relevant stakeholders on the additional 10 percent tax MMAG notes, have been unsuccessful.
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“The Union cannot cooperate with this directive given to the telcos by the government to deduct 10 percent extra from our cash-out services wallet.”
“In total, on each network, every Agent will be paying 20 percent tax on a monthly basis. Initially, Agents pay 5 percent on cash-in Service wallet, but it was secretly increased to 10 percent without our knowledge. We feel this is a gross disregard to procedures,” the Association intimated.
Adding that, aside the many other financial obligations on them such as the cost of utilities, acquisition of operating permit and payment of social security for employees and the cost of labour, they are also saddled with different challenges such as armed robbery attacks and fraud which nearly collapsed their businesses amid the height of the pandemic last year.
The Association further notes that, its members pay about nine different taxes and that, with the new tax they would struggle to stay afloat.
