MoMo tax: Telcos ready to fight gov’t
Adnan
Adams Mohammed
Government’s
gradual effort to tax Mobile Money profits of the Telecommunication companies
in the country is likely to hit the snarl as stakeholders prepared to fight any
of such idea or policy.
Adding
up to the strong position of the Telecom Chamber is the Chief Executive Officer
(CEO) of Vodafone Ghana, Patricia Obo-Nai, who has said for Ghana’s digital
market to grow, government should desist from taxing mobile money operations.
The
Telecom operators and other experts have argued that, taxing mobile money
operations will only discourage its usage in the country which she said was
unhealthy for the growth of the country’s digital market.
“If
you ask me, I still think the industry is still young. If you tax mobile money
you won’t get the penetration you require,” Vodafone Ghana CEO said during a
radio interview, last week.
She
explained that the mobile money industry has the least penetration although
awareness has been high in the country.
Although
the World Bank in June described Ghana as the fastest growing mobile money
market in Africa with registered accounts increasing 6 folds, the CEO believes
that more should be done to encourage its penetration.
According
to her, penetration stands below average, at a percentage of about 45% with
many Ghanaians not using the service.
The
Minister of Communication, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, is pushing for the taxing
of profits made from mobile money (MoMo) transactions by the telecommunication
companies in Ghana.
According
to the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Ablekuma West constituency, the telcos
are able to generate GHS71 million in profits per month and that must be taxed.
“This
is of particular interest to me but this is where the Finance Minister and I
diverge because I think that GHS71 million which is generated by the operators
in transaction fees, they ought to pay taxes on that revenue to the State,” she
said at a press conference in Accra, last week, as she revealed: “We are still
having conversations about that”.
Meanwhile,
the minister has disclosed that the state has managed to make tax savings of
GHS205.6 million in fraud management following the introduction of the Common
Platform.
On
mobile money monitoring, the minister said the platform has reported an average
monthly usage of GHS 29.1 billion, 195.8 million transactions, with GHS71
million generated by the operators in transaction fees, with further breakdowns
of transaction types for informed policy decision making.
According
to the minister, the introduction of the Common Platform has uncovered that
prior to its introduction, GHS300 million in taxes was lost from potential
under-declarations between 2015 to Q1 of 2017.
0 comments: