Let telecos pay taxes on mobile money transaction fees – Minister

Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the Communications Minister on Thursday implored the Finance Minister and the Ghana Revenue Authority to let telecommunication companies pay taxes on fees they receive on mobile money transactions.

Currently, the telecommunication companies charge one per cent transaction fees on every mobile money transaction and generate GH¢71 million per month.ddressing the media in Accra, to update the public on the Common Platform that monitors the activities of telecos, Mrs Owusu-Ekuful said telecos ought to pay taxes on monies they earned on transaction fees so that government in turn would provide the requisite developmental projects to the people.

The Minister noted that apart from saving the nation millions of dollars, the platform also offered real-time monitoring of 2.5 billion transactions per day within the telecom sector, including; calls, SMS and monitoring of mobile money transactions as an added component.

Besides, the platform saved the nation GH¢205.6 million from the fraud management component since its inception and expected to deliver tax savings of approximately GH¢795.9 million.

On mobile money monitoring, it reported an average monthly usage of GH¢29.1 billion and GH¢195.8 million transactions, with the Mobile Network Operators generating GH¢71 million per month in transaction fees.

Mrs Owusu-Ekuful observed that prior to the introduction of the platform, the nation lost GH¢300 million in taxes between 2015 and the first quarter of 2017 due to potential under declaration, while an estimated GH¢470 million was saved in taxes between March 2017 and to date, while a potential GH¢1.5 billion would have been lost, if the platform had not been implemented.

Source: GNA