GRA officials have clarified that transactions for the purposes of duty payments at the ports of Ghana are excluded from the e-levy tax.
Two members of the E-Levy Technical Committee, Opoku Afriyie Asante and Isaac Kobina Amoako, made this known on the Eye on Port program following calls from the shipping community for education on the nuances of the e-levy tax.
Mr. Afriyie Asante explained that “in the law, transfer for the payment of taxes, fees and charges via the ghana.gov platform or any designated Government of Ghana payment service platform is exempt from the levy.”
The GRA officials also indicated that payments to shipping lines and terminals operating at the country’s ports will not attract e-levy charges.
This also applies to the service fee paid to customs house/clearing agents for clearing goods at the port, according to the GRA.
Mr. Asante however noted that, “for the shipping company we treat them as part of what we call specified merchant payment. If the company is registered with the GRA for either income tax or VAT, then the money you pay to that merchant would not attract e-levy. Same applies to the agent or customs broker.”
Mr. Isaac Kobina Amoako also shed more light on the ambiguities surrounding the 100 cedis threshold mobile money transfers.
He said “Ghana has not taken the common platform route yet so it means that each day, the 100 cedis threshold would be enjoyed on each SIM you own.”
“Also because we are not yet on the common platform, customers will benefit from the 20,000 Ghana Cedis threshold for separate bank accounts,” he added.
He however indicated that the common platform would be introduced in July where the limits will apply cumulatively for all of an individual’s accounts.
According to the official from the Ghana Revenue Authority, transfers to oneself do not attract the e-levy.
The GRA officials, who were speaking on the 8th day of implementation admitted to the technical glitches experienced in the early days of implementation of the e-levy.
Mr. Asante said, “the issue we had was on the off-net transactions which means people on a network, for instance MTN, making transfer to another network like Vodafone, instead of not being charged for transfers less than 100 cedis, we realized some charging entities were charging individuals for such transfers.”