From today, January 11, 2023, the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications will begin implementing the new Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy) rate of 1%.
The government reduced the 1.5 percent electronic transaction charge to 1 percent beginning January 2023 in the 2023 Budget and Economic Policy Statement.
Parliament has also supported the cut.
In a statement, the chamber stated that it is working "assiduously with the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and other important institutions to ensure a smooth implementation of the amended tax beginning Wednesday, January 11, 2023."
Since its inception, the tax has failed to fulfill all of its income projections, creating worries among telecom providers about the feasibility of providing an efficient mobile money service with the charge in place.
Following the implementation of the levy, telecoms reported a loss of over 300,000 mobile money subscribers in April 2022.
According to the Summary of Economic and Financial Data (May 2022), just prior to the implementation of the E-levy in May, active mobile money subscribers fell to 18.6 million in April from 18.9 million the previous month.
Furthermore, the mobile money business lost 4,000 active agents, as their number fell to 454,000 in April from 458,000 the previous month, which is reflected in the amount of transactions, which fell by GH2.8 billion during the time period under consideration.