At a Budget reading in Parliament today, the Minister of Parliament, Ken Ofori Atta proposed a new levy on electronic payments to begin in February 2022. The aim of this levy will be to widen the tax net and rope in the informal sector in Ghana.
The levy, which will be called the “Electronic Payment Levy” or “E-Levy” will cover electronic payments on a number of payment channels including mobile money payments, bank transfers, merchant payments (POS devices), and inward remittances.
A rate of 1.75% will be imposed on the sender. Transactions which are up to 100 GHC per day will be exempt from the levy.
If passed, the E-Levy will take effect on January 1, 2022.
The minister stated that a portion of the proceeds from the E-Levy will be used to support entrepreneurship, youth employment, cyber security, digital and road infrastructure.
