The MoMo Agents Association of Ghana wants to cut the E-levy from 1% to 0.5%. Ken Ofori-Atta, the Minister of Finance, said that the E-Levy would go down from 1.5% to 1%.
He said that the rule would apply to all transactions by 2023. The agents say that if the government changes the rate, the income goal could be met.
Evans Otumfour, who is the General Secretary of the Association, told Citi News that Ghanaians will avoid paying the fee if it isn’t lowered.
“The government needs to do research to figure out why people don’t use MoMo. It’s clear that the rate is one of the biggest things stopping the government from getting the money it needs. So, the government needs to lower the rate so that it doesn’t affect a lot of people.
“There are more than 17 million MoMo users, so if the government sets the rate at 0.1 or 0.5 percent, it will still make its revenue goal. If not, people will find other ways to get what they need, like using cash.”
Even the minority in Parliament has suggested a GHS300 threshold and an Electronic Transfer Levy of 0.5% to help Ghanaians who are less well-off.
Haruna Iddrisu, who is in charge of the caucus, said that his group was willing to work with the government as it tries to get out of the economic crisis.
“As a caucus, we will talk about [the new E-levy rate] more carefully and in-depth,” he said. “This will help the government get out of its coming economic crisis.”
“But without going into the scenarios, when you look at your scenarios, think about another 0.5 percent at a threshold of GHS 300 compared to what you have admitted, which is 1 percent at a threshold of zero,” the Minority leader said.
Some people who use mobile money have also said they don’t like the proposed changes.
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