Banks, SDIs, EMIs, others named entities responsible for charging E-Levy
Head of Compliance, Domestic Tax Revenue Unit at the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Victor Yao Akogo, has listed entities responsible for deducting the yet-to-be-implemented Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy) on electronic transactions.
According to Mr Yao Akogo, entities designated to make the E-Levy deductions are prepping themselves to ensure that the new tax policy is implemented smoothly on May 1, 2022.
Speaking in an interview on Sunday, Mr Yao Akogo listed the entities as follows;
- Electronic Money Issuers such as MTN, Vodafone Cash, AirtelTigo, Zeepay, and G-Money.
- Payment Service Providers (PSPs) such as E-transact.
- Banks [Charges applicable on the digital system]
- The Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions (SDIs) Eg: Rural and Community Banks
Throwing more light on the topic, a Principal Revenue Officer and Head of the Project Management Unit said the Authority, Isaac Kobina Amoako, said the aforementioned entities will serve as intermediaries.
According to him, the institutions, after the deduction, will transfer the funds to the consolidated account of the GRA within 24 hours.
“Once the funds are deducted by the charging entities, we require that within 24 hours, they remit that amount to the Bank of Ghana electronically,” he stated.
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list of transfers that will not attract E-Levy charges
- A cumulative transfer of GHS 100 made by the same person.
- A transfer between accounts owned by the same person.
- Transfers for the payment of taxes, fees and charges on the Ghana.gov platform
- Electronic clearing of cheques
- Specified merchant payments (that is, payments to commercial establishments registered with the GRA for income tax and VAT purposes)
- Transfers between principal, master agent, and agent’s accounts.
list of transfers that will attract E-Levy charges
- Mobile money transfers done between accounts on the same Electronic Money Issuer.
- Mobile money transfer to a receiver on another Electronic Money Issuer [Interoperability transfer]
- Transfer from a bank account to [another person’s] mobile money account.
- From a mobile money account to [another person’s] bank account.
- Bank transfers on an instant paid digital platform.
GRA, Finance Ministry to discuss some anomalies in E-Levy
Meanwhile, the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has revealed that it will engage the Finance Ministry to resolve some key anomalies in the Electronic Transactions Levy (E-levy), which could significantly impact some Ghanaians when the tax is implemented.
Speaking on the new development, Mr Amoako, admitted that salaries paid through mobile money will attract E-levy, even though the salary would have already been taxed.
He explained that the current framework created by the law, as it stands, does not distinguish a corporate mobile money account and an individual mobile money account.
Mr Amoako added that potential challenges that may accompany this situation have come to the attention of the Authority; hence, all such concerns will be forwarded to the Finance Ministry with the hopes of having them addressed quickly.
“That is something that has come to our attention; we’ve referred it to our superiors to look at it. But, for now, the law seems to have captured everybody, including disbursements from corporate mobile accounts. In fact, for the banks, the disbursements from corporate accounts were not mentioned, so it is clear that that is exempt.
“But in the MoMo, there was no distinction between a corporate MoMo account and individual MoMo account; so, that is where we’ve received some kind of feedback from the public that it will affect salaries, loan disbursements, and so many other things, which we’ve referred to the [Finance] Ministry,” he said.
