How Ghanaians Can Avoid 1.75% E-levy Charges in 2022

Are you thinking of how to avoid or survive the 1.75% E-levy Charges in 2022? The government of Ghana is burnt on introducing the controversial Electronic Transaction Level known as the E-Levy which will charge 1.75% on all electronic remittances or transfers made.

While the government of Ghana pushes for the E-levy, Ghanaians are positioning themselves to avoid the E-levy through legal and ethical means. 

Ghanaeducation.org has sighted a post by a Ghanaian on social media which seeks to provide survival tactics to help users of Mobile money services avoid the 1.75% E-levy while still enjoying the services of mobile money on various telecommunication networks.

How Ghanaians Can Avoid 1.75% E-levy Charges in 2022

To make sure that as a Mobile Money user, you do not pay for the service or avoid the levy, you may need to consider or do one or a combination of the following.

A. Use cash in your transactions instead of  Mobile Money Services (MMS).

This is the easiest way to avoid paying the E-levy. Pay for services using cash.

This in itself will retard Ghana’s growth in terms of bringing on board the unbanked population and developing a cashless society which will positively impact the government’s digitization agenda.

B. Make ATM transactions only on your bank machines.

Since the E-levy will lead to charges if you use the ATM of other banks. Identify the nearest ATM locations of your bank and use them for your withdrawals and related services.

C. Make Payments With Cheques

The use of cheques for making payments will help you avoid paying 1.75% E-Levy on funds and payments sent to suppliers, customers, workers, family, and friends. Do not forget that, to ensure those you pay with cheques accept it, do well to have enough money in your account to cover the face value of the cheque. Better still, you can use post-dated cheques to pay or transfer money from your bank account to others to help you buy time to personally visit the bank to make cash /cheque deposits ahead of the cheque due date. 

D. Use Visa / Mastercard whenever a POS is available.

E. Avoid any electronic transfer like the plague. 

F. If possible, split your electronic transfer transactions into GHS100.00 over days to avoid the 1.75% levy.

The E-Levy will surely amount to the same amount being taxed severally. Should it be approved, it is projected that its usage by Ghanaians will reduce and somewhat increase the market share of banks, cutting the competition that mobile money is giving commercial banks in Ghana. 

Days to the commencement of the implementation of the E-levy in Ghana if it is passed will see the Ghanaians across the country rushing to Mobile Money Vendors to cash out their deposits before the 1.7% Electronic Transaction Levy (e-levy) takes effect. The experience will be synanimous to the days prior to the crossing down of poor-performing banks in Ghana. 

What transactions fall under the E-Levy?

The levy will cover the following;

• All Person to Person (P2P) mobile transactions (i.e sending of funds to another account, payment for goods and services, payment of utilities (please note that payments for government fees and charges; are exempt)
• All POS/Merchant payments; and
• All inward remittances (to be borne by the recipient)

According to Nan, Zhu & Markus (2020), Mobile money has been seen as a transformative financial service due to the ease of access to both the banking and non-banking population. The E-levy has been introduced in other African countries and the negative implications are well documented but Ghana is on the path of failure since she has refused to learn from past experiences. 

The findings of  Bongomin Yourougou & Munene (2019) further pointed to the reality Ghana must be open to thus Mobile Money Transaction tax exemptions have a major and beneficial influence on mobile money acceptance and usage in emerging nations, advancing financial inclusion;  transaction tax exemptions on digital financial innovations such as mobile money services can drive economic development by increasing financial inclusion, which has been identified as the primary facilitator in attaining the SDGs by 2030.

Unfortunately, the lessons from how the introduction of a mobile money tax in Kenya influence the usage of mobile money which should guide Ghana in its quest to tax electronic transactions have been thrown to the dogs.

READ: Easy steps to register your SIM card with Ghana Card

Ghanaians are arming themselves to the teeth with ways to avoid the e-levy if should the government have his way in parliament. To avoid 1.75% E-levy charges in 2022, the above suggestions will be worht considering.

Source: Ghanaeducation.org