Our members won’t hesitate to use cash payment system if e-levy impacts negatively on their business – GUTA
The Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) has indicated that its members will not hesitate to use cash payment services if the e-levy impacts negatively on their operations.
The Union’s assertion follows concerns that the application of the tax is already increasing cost of doing business.
President of the Association, Joseph Obeng, disclosed that traders will strategize to ensure they are not made worse off by applying the tax.
“We have questions to ask, somebody is paying me through the momo and I’m not going to suffer any payment, when I’m paying to my suppliers then I have to commit something, so where are the options, the options are that you either go the traditional way, that is, you let them come and take the money physically or you transact through the bank, the clearing system that’s the cheque system and all. The business men are very intelligent and they will have their own way of doing this”
Meanwhile, Head of Project Management unit at the Ghana Revenue Authority, Isaac Kobina Amoako, has revealed that the authority is going to investigate and refund all wrongful deductions from customers’ mobile money wallets during the first day of the e-levy implementation.
This follows reports by consumers about some technical hitches they experienced on the various networks on the day of the implementation.
Mr. Isaac Kobina Amoako admitted the challenges, and assured all consumers of a refund after the completion of the probe by his outfit.
According to him, the authority received feedback from some charging entities including the banks and telecom companies, but a daily report will be run on all transactions to see the way forward.
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Clarifying a point from a listener during an interview, Mr. Amoako, said “the feedback we got from one of the charging entities is that the configuration for off-net for less than 100 and below is being charged which is in two folds”.
“The first fold is that, 100 and below whether on net or off-net attracted the E-Levy, but at the moment it’s a technical hitch. So it will be ratified automatically once the transaction is detected.”
“They will run an end of day report for all transactions below 100 transactions that were not supposed to attract the levy and were charged. The customers don’t need to do any intervention. If indeed the investigation shows that it was the first hundred cedis or below for the day, the amount will be refunded,” he added.
Also speaking on the same issue, Chief Executive of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, Ken Ashigbey, hinted that helplines will be published for aggrieved customers to seek clarity in the payment of the levy.
He however pointed out that some of these hitches were expected, but confident they will be resolved soon.
“There was an engagement with the charging entities and the phased approached was agreed upon. So we noticed that a lot of these things [hitches] were occasioned after the phased approach was agreed which was just few days to going live with the levy. So more education will happen and the FAQs [Frequently Ask Questions] developed for the project”.
“So if you call any of the call center lines that will be given out later, some more clarity and education will still continue”, he added.
Government is targeting about GHS 4.5 billion as revenue from the E-levy.
