E-Levy Scrap Will Ease Financial Strain on SMEs - AGI
Accra, Ghana - 18 March, 2025 - Tsonam Akpeloo, President of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) for Greater Accra, welcomed the scrapping of the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy), citing its significant impact on businesses, particularly Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that rely heavily on mobile money transactions.
18, Tsonam Akpeloo stressed that scrapping certain taxes would significantly alleviate the financial strain on businesses, particularly Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that are heavily reliant on mobile money transactions.
“The budget looks promising, even though we are not yet out of the hook, we still have concerns but it looks promising. It comes across as a more stabilized budget for us in the private sector. Especially because some of the taxes that we have always advocated have been taken out, like the E-Levy for example.
“If you follow advocacy, you will realize that most of the businesses that are SMEs really use mobile money for transactions, so the E-Levy thing was a big deal.
“It was affecting them significantly. But our view is that the tax rate to GDP ratio should be worked on to decrease. As we speak now, it is about 40%, but we should be doing about 20%. What it means is that we have to expand the tax basket,” he stated.
The E-Levy's abolition is part of a broader effort to ease the tax burden on businesses. Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson announced plans to abolish several taxes, including the Betting Tax, Emission Levy on industries and vehicles, VAT on motor vehicle insurance policies, and the 1.5% withholding tax on the winnings of unprocessed gold by small-scale miners.
To formalize these changes, the Finance Minister has laid three financial bills before Parliament: the Electronic Transfer Levy (Repeal) Bill 2025, the Emissions Levy (Repeal) Bill 2025, and the Income Tax Amendment Bill 2025. These bills aim to abolish the E-Levy, remove the emissions levy, and eliminate the 10% withholding tax on betting winnings, as promised in the 2025 budget presented on behalf of President John Dramani Mahama.
Source: Lead News Online
