Consumers To Bear Mobile Levy
Contrary to reports that mobile service operators will bear the cost of specific excise duty per minute of airtime use, Managing Director of Kasapa Telecom, Bob Palitz says they may be forced to push the cost to consumers.
Speaking in an interview with CITY & BUSINESS GUIDE, Bob Palitz said the service providers were already paying several levies such as the one to Ghana Investment For Telecommunications (GIFTEL), making it difficult for them to absorb the specific excise levy.
He said the imposition of levies on air time usage was tantamount to anti-development, adding that the levy may raise the cost of mobile phones.
CITY & BUSINESS GUIDE also learnt that the specific excise duty per minute of airtime use may be 26.9 per cent.
Mobile service providers including OneTouch, Tigo, Kasapa and MTN had expressed their displeasure on the proposed airtime levies on mobile calls, saying they were meeting to adopt alternatives to the decision.
Chief Executive Officer of OneTouch, Philip Sowah said though the service providers had failed to agree on alternatives to the proposed airtime taxes at an earlier meeting, they were going to engage the Parliamentary Select Committee on Communications to make a case on how the imposition of taxes on airtime calls would affect their businesses.
Government announced in next year's budget that it would abolish duty and VAT on all mobile phones imported into the country and rather introduce a specific excise duty per minute of airtime use to enable it rope in more revenue- a situation Government Spokesman on Finance and Economy, Kwaku Kwateng said was part of several efforts by government to shore up the country's revenue.
CITY & BUSINESS GUIDE also learnt that the new tax imposition would enable the country to accrue some 200 million dollars annually.
In a related development, the Director General of the Council For Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Professor Emmanuel Owusu-Bennoah says so far as government policies are supported by research, it could go ahead and implement the policies, thus he does not have any problem if the proposed specific duty per minute of airtime had research to back it.
Professor Owusu-Bennoah disclosed this to CITY & BUSINESS GUIDE on the sidelines of a workshop on survey on the use of mobile phones for business development.
He noted that the research would help all to know the development of mobile phone usage in the country, adding that it would assist all stakeholders, especially the government and mobile telephone operators to design relevant policies and services that could meet the aspirations of the users.
He called for strong partnership between CSIR, the Ministry of Communications and other stakeholders to put Ghana firmly in the ICT landscape of the world.