John Kumah: I didn’t call for arrest of persons who don’t implement E-Levy

The deputy minister for finance, John Kumah has debunked claims suggesting he has ordered the arrest of persons who refuse to implement the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy).

Speaking with Kwaku Nhyira-Addo on the Asaase Breakfast Show on Friday (6 May), Kumah said the report is an attempt to silence the government communication on the E-Levy.

“It is absolutely false, complete lies part of the wicked propaganda to silence government communication on the E-Levy. They want to tweak every word so that in the end cow us from communicating on the E-Levy,” he said.

“…When everything begins people have certain apprehension and anxiety and it takes a while, and so this is a transition process and some people may be slow in coming on board the E-Levy.”

“But at the end of the day, let us understand that we have to help the government to achieve maximum revenue through the E-Levy. I never mentioned arrest or anything close to that and I was surprised that such a report could be presented,” Kumah added.

GRA refunds “unintended” deductions

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has begun refunding wrongful deductions a few days into the implementation of the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy).

A cross section of the public lamented what they described as excess charges after carrying out mobile money transactions below the GHC100 threshold.

Some Ghanaians who spoke to Asaase News have expressed excitement at the development.

Below is a notice to a customer whose unintended deduction was refunded.

Timelines

Meanwhile, a tax lawyer, Theophilus Tawiah has suggested to the government to come out with clear timelines for the implementation of the Electronic Transaction Levy ( E- Levy) if any.

Tawiah believes this could help reduce likelihood of people not patronising mobile money and other payment platforms due to the implementation of the E-Levy.

Speaking with Kwaku Nhyira-Addo on the Asaase Breakfast Show on Thursday (5 May ), he said, “So it is something that, for me, I expect the government to communicate clearly through the citizens. At the moment it is unclear whether this tax system is going to be a permanent feature of our tax system.”

“It will be good to have clear timelines for which this tax will be imposed. If you look at the banking sector for example, we have stabilisation levy which is bound by time. If we have something like that it is going to reduce the effect of people not wanting to use mobile money and other payment platforms.”

“So that must be clearly communicated. We must have a definite period where all of us are shouldering the tax obligation … because if that is not the case it is going to have distortionary effect on the populous and it is going to have a negative effect even though it is going to yield revenue,” he added.

He also called on the government to address the issue of refunds with the implementation of the E-Levy.

Listen to Theophilus Tawiah in the audio below:

Fred Dzakpata

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