Finance Minister announce transactions to be excluded from E-Levy charges

Finance Minister, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta

The Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta has announced some transactions that will be excluded from charges when the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy) is approved and implemented.

The Minister late last year disclosed plans by the government to introduce a new levy on electronic transactions when he visited Parliament to present the 2022 budget statement.

At a media engagement on Wednesday, January 19, 2022, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has opened up steps to be taken.

He told the media that cumulative transfers of GHC100 per day made by the same person will not be charged.

In addition, transfers between accounts owned by the same person will not be subject to the proposed 1.75% charge.

Other exclusions include;

• Transfers for the payment of taxes, fees and charges on the Ghana.gov platform
• Electronic clearing of cheques
• Specified merchant payments (that is, payments to commercial establishments registered with the GRA for income tax and VAT purposes)
• Transfers between principal, master agent and agent’s accounts

Meanwhile, transactions to be charged by the E-Levy include:

• Mobile money transfers between accounts on the same electronic money issuer (EMI)
• Mobile money transfers from an account on one EMI to a recipient on another EMI
• Transfers from bank accounts to mobile money accounts
• Transfer from mobile money accounts to bank accounts
• Bank transfers on a digital platform or application which originate from a bank account belonging to an individual to another individual

Discussions on the Electronic Transaction Levy in Parliament were inconclusive in December last year.

As the House prepares to resume sitting on Tuesday, January 25, 2022, the Minority and the Majority are expected to continue engagements to decide the fate of the levy.