Telcos to implement 1% E-Levy charge from tomorrow

The Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications says it will commence the implementation of the revised Electronic Transfer levy (E-Levy) rate of 1% from Wednesday, January 11, 2023.

The government presenting the 2023 Budget and Economic Policy Statement, reviewed the 1.5 percent electronic transaction levy downwards to 1 percent effective January 2023.

The reduction has also been approved by Parliament.

The chamber in a statement said it is working “assiduously with the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and other key institutions, to ensure a seamless implementation of the revised levy from Wednesday, January 11, 2023.”

The levy had failed to meet all of its revenue targets since its introduction with players in the telco space raising concerns over the practicality of running an effective mobile money service with the levy in place.

After the implementation of the levy, telcos registered an over 300,000 loss of mobile money subscribers in April 2022.

According to the Summary of Economic and Financial data (May 2022), just ahead of implementing the E-levy in May, active mobile money subscribers saw a decline in April to 18.6 million from the 18.9 million recorded the previous month.

Furthermore, the mobile money industry lost 4,000 active agents, as their number declined to 454,000 in April from the previous month’s 458,000 which is also reflected in the value of transactions, which dropped by GH¢2.8billion within the period under discussion.