The Ministry of Finance has denied allegations that state a private company has been awarded a contract to collect the proposed Electronic levy (E-levy) on Mobile Money transactions, inward remittances and ATM withdrawals.
The Finance Ministry issued a statement yesterday saying that the Ghana Revenue Authority(GRA) is the state agency mandated to collect the levy at a cost that shall not exceed the standard cost of revenue mobilization.The Ministry’s statement was in reaction to allegations that suggested that a private company has been awarded a contract to collect the E-Levy.
“The attention of the Ministry of Finance has been drawn to social media publications claiming that government has dropped the allocation of GHC241,933,000 for the E Transaction Levy Services in the 2022 Budget and it will, therefore, not appear in the Appropriations Bill,” the statement said.
“Additionally, the Ministry is aware of allegations making the rounds that a private company has been awarded a contract to collect the E-Levy. Another allegation is that the services of the said private company have now been abrogated.
“The Ministry of Finance wish to state that these allegations are all untrue.”The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) is the state agency mandated to provide for the collection services, the cost of which shall not exceed the standard of revenue mobilization as has always been the practice. This standard indicative cost is what is outlined in the budget. GRA will manage all discussions to ensure full deployment of their current platforms and resources for the collection of the E-Levy”.
The statement continued ;”So, in essence, this really will be to back up GRA in a way to ensure that all the problems that people envisage and the difficulties other countries have had will be mitigated in Ghana, so we should be in readiness to support that.”9. We wish to reiterate that, the E-Transaction Levy remains one of the efficient means by which Government would be able to raise the needed revenue to support the economic development programmes for 2022. We count on your support.ISSUED BY THE PUBLIC RELATIONS UNIT MINISTRY OF FINANCE
Source: dailygraphic
