Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has called on Ghanaians to reject claims by the main opposition, National Democratic Congress (NDC) that the electronic levy bill when passed will kill the mobile money business in the country.
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, in the 2022 Budget Statement, said the government would charge 1.75 per cent on electronic transactions covering, mobile money payments, bank transfers, merchant payments, and inward remittances, which shall be borne by the sender, except inward remittances, which would be borne by the recipient.
Opposition to the bill from a section of Ghanaians led the government to withdraw the bill and subsequnntly re-laid and increased the threshhold from GHC100 to GHC 300.
It was argued that the passage of the bill will lead to a reduction in mobile money transactions which will ultimately lead to the death of the industry.
This argument, the Information Minister contributing to a debate on the bill in Parliament said that argument does not hold water insisting that there is no data to support that claim.
“When the Communication tax was being introduced, same argument was made that it will kill the industry but that hasn’t happened instead the industry has rather grown…,” he said.
He further claimed that the poor ‘have been taken out because the people transferring below GHC100.00 will no longer be taxed.’
