Financial analyst with Dalex Finance, Joe Jackson, has chided the government for making attempts to tax profits of Mobilemoney businesses on account that it will fight against financial inclusion, ABC News can report.
According to the financial analyst, the Telecommunication companies that operate these mobile money businesses already pay a number of taxes including corporate tax. He argues that introducing the new tax as envisaged by the government will increase the cost of operations in these companies.
The telcos which he says are not charitable organizations will pass on this tax to the users of the service hence burdening the cost of using mobile money services.
Speaking on TV 3’s midday news, Joe Jackson explained that this situation has the propensity to prevent people, especially the poor from using the service hence fighting against the financial inclusion agenda of the government.
He is, therefore, of the view that it will be in the best interest of the government to avoid taxing mobile money services so that its financial inclusion plan will be successful.
“These telcos are not in charity. The minister should think about the effects it will have on the ordinary consumer who uses the platform more. The telcos will pass it on to us. We as consumers are already overburdened”, the Director of Business Development at Dalex Finance indicated.
He continued that ” these telcos pay corporate tax. Mobile money has been of extreme utility value to this country; it has pushed up the country’s GDP by a few basis points. It’s[Mobilemoney] cheaper and has helped with the financial inclusion drive that we are all aiming at. Instinctively, I would say ‘minister, desist from touching mobile money profits’”, he advised.
Minister of Communications, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful at a Press Conference in Accra on Thursday hinted her ministry is advocating for Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to be taxed for the profit made on mobile money transactions. She justified that the telcos generate about GHS 71 million monthly out of Mobilemoney transactions which goes untaxed.
Data from the Bank of Ghana last year showed mobile money transactions increased from 155 billion cedis to 233 billion cedis, representing 43 percent growth in just a year. It also showed the volume of transactions on the mobile money platforms increased from 2017 to 2018 and reached GHC1.4 billion.
