The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta has announced that the Government has reduced Communication Service Tax (CST) from 9% to 5%.
The Finance Minister while presenting the mid-year budget review on the floor of Parliament on Thursday said, the reduction is to enhance a reduction in the cost of data.
The government in 2019 increased the Communication Service Tax from 6 to 9 percent.
The CST is levied on charges for the use of communications services that are provided by operators in the country.
It was imposed under Section One of the Communications Service Tax Act 2008, (Act 754) and paid by consumers of the communications service providers who in turn pay all the tax collected to the Domestic Tax Revenue Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) on a monthly basis.
The increment was said to help with the development of the foundation for the creation of a viable technology ecosystem in the country.
The increment was met with great resistance by the Telcos but government nonetheless went ahead with the implementation.
One year on, Ken Ofori-Atta has announced that the government will decrease that tax for the next six months.
“In the short term, we will reduce the CST from 9% to 5% to reduce the cost of communication services to the consumer as more and more people work remotely and utilize online services…,” he announced on the floor.
