E-levy wahala: GRA explains why those doing transactions below ¢100 are being charged, Sam George warns Ghanaians have not seen anything yet

On Monday, www.Ghbase.com carried out a news report regarding the abnormalities associated with the newly rolled out Electronic Transaction Levy (E-levy) which kicked off on May 1.

Most Ghanaians who curiously made transactions to check how the taxation system has been designed and were shocked to the bone when they found out they were being charged below the stipulated baseline.

In view of this, the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has explained why the implementation of the levy has been dogged with technical challenges.

Speaking on JoyNews’ AM Show on Monday, the Head of Project Management at GRA, Mr Isaac Kobina Amoako revealed that the challenge faced yesterday was a result of the lack of a connected platform that would host the various charging entities.

Furthermore, he noted that currently, the charging entities; Telcos, Banks, Payment Service Providers (PSPs), and Specialized deposit-taking institutions; are charging from their individual systems.

Interacting with host, Benjamin Akakpo, he said: “In our engagement with the charging entities, we were going to go with a (project) where everybody was expected by May 1, to connect to a common platform and start charging using the common platform. But at the last minute, we realized that some of the charging parties came to us that they needed an extension so they can fully configure their system to connect to the common platform.”

The Minister allowed that we shouldn’t connect to the common platform on May 1, and we should allow all the charging entities to do the charging on their own platforms.”

“So currently, what is happening is that the charging is taking place on each of the charging entity’s own system and not through a common system as we envisaged. You are at the mercy of a charging entity’s system so if the system hasn’t been fully configured at their end, then we see some of these challenges,” he added.

Mr. Kobina Amoako admitted that the challenges where off-net transfers to the same person are receiving charges happened during the GRA’s simulation, therefore, was anticipated.

In a sharp rebuttal and revealing how insensitive this government is, Member of Parliament for Ningo-Prampram, Sam Nartey George, has said Ghanaians should brace themselves for the worst under this government concerning this e-levy.

He also noted that it baffles him that the government pushed for the implementation of the levy although the issue has been dragged to court.

“An abysmal illegality of an implementation is what we are witnessing in an attempt to frustrate the injunction case in court. This mess is with onnet transactions oh, wait for the real chaos when the offnet & interoperability start. The worst is yet to come. Pray for Ghana,” he said.

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