1% E-levy: GRA to reimburse customers wrongfully overcharged

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has assured to reimburse mobile money customers who are wrongfully overcharged following the implementation of the 1 percent levy on electronic transfers.

The reduction of the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy) from 1.5 to 1 percent commenced on Wednesday, January 11.

The reduction of the levy was made known in the 2023 Budget and Economic Policy Statement presented on the floor of Parliament last year by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.

Speaking to Citi News, a Member of the E-levy Technical Committee GRA, Opoku Afriyie Asante said adequate measures have been put in place to deal with the challenges of the revised levy.

“I would like to assure the general public that the Commissioner General is doing all that he can and if there are any system glitches the GRA would be available to reimburse if you are wrongfully deducted,” Mr Afriyie Asante said.

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.