The Minister for Communications and Digitalization, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has hinted that government is adopting measures to properly tax digital transactions in the country.
In an interview on Asempa Fm, the sector Minister disclosed that experts are currently looking into the taxation policy on tax digital transactions which include Mobile Money Payment Interoperability service.
Madam Ursula Owusu-Ekuful noted that Government’s reason to tax Mobile Money Payment Interoperability and other digital services is to make some revenue for the state since Communication Services Tax is gradually not yielding the needed result.
According to her, the demand on government for development projects are rising and the government needs to rope in revenue to develop the nation.
“Let’s wait for the experts looking into the policy on taxing the digital economy to bring their report and then we can talk about whether or not we can tax the telecommunication networks for their services. As an operator, you definitely resist any attempt to pay additional taxes and of course, that is normal because a lot of people do not like paying taxes
“As policy-makers, we are looking at ways in which we can also maximize our revenue, the avenues for compromise are very limited, so let’s listen to both sides of the coin and allow the experts to also bring the middle grounds. The traditional sources of revenue that the government gets from Communication Services Tax is going down, the definition of what a communication tax is, needs to be reviewed in my opinion, because of the evolution of technology.
“The traditional voice review is also going down because today, a lot of people are using data platforms. For voice communication, hence the need to have a tax policy that can be rolled out on digital transactions platforms,” she said.
Mobile Money Payment Interoperability system was launched by Vice President of Ghana, Dr. Alhaji Mahamoud Bawumia on 10 May, 2018 and is aimed at eliminating the complexities and inconveniences associated with transfers across the various mobile money networks in the country.
