The Electronic Transaction charge, often known as the E-Levy, came to an end on Thursday when the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) approved its repeal following the President’s approval of the bill that did away with the charge.
Since then, the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has reiterated that the E-Levy was formally eliminated on April 2, 2025, and that any deductions made after that date would be properly reimbursed to anyone who were impacted.
Given that the levy had been entirely eliminated from the nation’s tax regulations, it was emphasized that no one should be subject to it starting at 0:00 on April 2, 2025.
“We do recognise that there are practical implications in removing the system.” On the fringes of a two-day GRA management retreat in Akosombo yesterday, GRA Commissioner General Anthony Kwasi Sarpong stated that everybody who experienced an E-Levy deduction from April 2 onwards would receive their money back in accordance with the law and the President’s directive.
Since then, two of the charging corporations have notified their clients that the E-Levy charge has been discontinued.
Customers received a notification from AT Money stating that the E-Levy was discontinued as of April 2, 2025.
The notice stated that all E-Levy charges made after April 2, 2025, would be reimbursed within 72 hours.
According to MTN Mobile Money, the 1% E-Levy has been eliminated and is no longer applicable to “your momo transactions.”
“We had agreed with them that by the morning of April 3, all charging systems should be taken off, but if for any reason someone has suffered the levy within this period, we will reconcile with the charging entities and ensure all affected customers are duly refunded,” he said.
According to Mr. Sarpong, in order to facilitate a seamless transition, the GRA had enlisted charging organizations including banks and mobile money providers before the fee was eliminated.
However, he acknowledged that some systems were still undergoing updates.
The GRA Electronic Transfer Levy Management and Assurance System will automatically return a “no charge” on all transactions posted to it by entities starting at midnight, according to a notice sent to all charging businesses late last Wednesday.
It instructed all charging organizations to stop using the 1% E-Levy on all channels at midnight.
“Charging entities must immediately process refunds for any E-Levy amounts deducted from customers effective today, April 2, 2025. Entities are to establish an expedited refund process to handle such cases promptly and maintain proper documentation of all refunds processed.
Reports of such refunds must be submitted to GRA,” the notice reiterated.
“Charging entities are to take the necessary steps to file and pay all outstanding E-Levy charged and collected on all transactions that occurred before April 2, 2025,” it added.
In the meanwhile, lottery operators have been instructed by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to cease deducting the 10% withholding tax from lottery prizes as of April 2, 2025.
It said that players were eligible to a reimbursement from the lottery operator if they were levied withholding tax on their wins on or after April 2, 2025.
It stated that in order to streamline any required refund procedure, customers were encouraged to preserve electronic records or receipts of their transactions.
“The Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority wishes to inform the general public that the 10 per cent withholding tax on winnings from lottery (including gaming, betting, lotto, and any games of chance) has been abolished effective April 2, 2025,” a notice on withholding tax on winnings from lottery said.
The E-levy, Dr Ashigbey said, resulted even in some job losses, with some mobile money agents having to close some of their shops, and that it resulted in loss of investment for some of the financial technology institutions (fintechs) as well.
“When it happened, it slowed down the rate of growth of mobile money and we have not been able to recover from that.
Though when the reduction was down from 1.5 per cent to one per cent, we saw some recovery. But not back to the rate at which we were going before then.
“So, the expectation is that now that the E-Levy has been revoked, we should be able to get back to the point of growth, where anybody sending mobile money would not be thinking about the E-Levy anymore,” he said, adding that “the discrimination that existed between mobile money and the banks and all other transactions would have been cured.”
“So when people want to take a decision, they would look at which one is more convenient for them. If the banks are convenient, they would do the banks. If the mobile money is convenient, they would do the mobile money,” he said.
Customers would also have a lot more money in their pockets because the % levied on money transmitted may be used to pay for goods or services, according to Dr. Ashigbey.
Additionally, he claimed that because “this money that they have to spend would not come to the vendors,” there would be a significant increase in turnover for the vendors. There would also be a significant increase in transactions. So the mobile money agents would also get a lot more transactions”.
“The agents could even file their corporate income taxes and pay some taxes to the government at the end of the year,” he said, adding that if the volume and value of electronic money issuers (EMIs) increased, it would mean more profits for them, which would mean more taxes for the government.
Regarding the reimbursements that must be made starting on April 2, 2025, in accordance with the GRA’s decision, Dr. Ashigbey stated that the chamber was awaiting detailed guidance from the GRA on how to proceed.
“If you have seen the directive from the GRA, there is some refund that should be done from April 2, 2025, the day on which the assent and the gazette was done.
“So, for that one, we are waiting for GRA to issue guidelines on how the April 2, 2025 refunds are going to be done,” he said, adding that in the event of any inadvertent wrongful charge that would have happened after the midnight of April 3, 2025, “the EMIs would do the refund themselves.
I’m sure within a week, they would do that refund when it happens.”
Following the GRA’s decision, Dr. Ashigbey stated that all five electronic money issuers went live on Wednesday night. Anyone who transacted on Thursday morning would have noticed that the E-Levy or tax was zero for most of the channels.
The “shortness of the time between when the gazette was received and when GRA issued the written instructions and midnight, a few of them might fall within the cracks,” he said, adding that mobile money used a variety of channels to complete those transactions, including offline partners and third-party channels.
In response to a question about whether he had received any complaints about unlawful deduction, he stated that if anyone had, they would have directed their grievances to the EMI that had made the erroneous deduction.
After the government repealed the E-Levy, traders in the Accra suburb of Adabraka expressed relief and hope.
According to some dealers who contacted to the Daily Graphic, they were immediately feeling the advantages because mobile money transfers were no longer subject to the extra fees that used to reduce their profits.
Source: newsthemegh.com