The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has directed the Telecom Operators to start charging their customers the revised Communication Service Tax.
According to Joy FM's report, the directive was contained in a letter to the telcos on September 4 2019.
This was after the levy together with taxes outlined in the Supplementary Budget, secured President Akufo Addo’s signature last month.
For now, the implementation would not affect Radio and TV as well as other stakeholders in the broadcasting industry.
Revised Communication Service Tax
Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta in the Supplementary Budget announced an increase in the Communication Service Tax from 6 to 9 per cent.
READ ALSO : Communication Service Tax increased, Ghanaians to pay 50% more for talking
According to the finance minister, the increase was to help develop the foundation for a viable technology ecosystem in the county.
This will comprise putting in systems to identify and combat cybercrime, protect users of information technology and combat money laundering and other financial crimes.
Mr Ofori-Atta maintains that sharing ratio would be done in a way that National Youth Employment programs would continue to receive the same portions as the current cycle.
In 2018 the tax was first introduced at an Ad Valorem Rate of 6 per cent. The tax is levied on Charges payable by consumers for the use of communication services.
In 2018 the tax brought in a total of GH¢420 million, representing a 27.7 per cent increase from the estimated GH¢304 million accrued in 2017.
The amount generated from the levy was 4.56 per cent more than the projected GH¢401.8 million in the 2018 mid-year budget. Â
READ ALSO : Telecom Chamber to meet Ministry of Communications over 50% increment of CST
TV and Radio stations are now not charging the tax but they would later be directed to do so after the necessary engagement with all industry players.Â
According to the finance minister, the decision to bring onboard TV and Radio stations was to correct the policy gap and ensure equity in the communication industry.
Telecom Chamber reacts to 50% increment of Communication Service Tax
The Chamber of Telecommunications Ghana said the increment announced by the Finance Minister for the Communication Service Tax comes as a surprise to them.
CEO for Telecom Chamber, Kenneth Ashigbey said "There is normally a tax dialogue where the Ministry of Finance, the GRA and a lot of taxpaying entities where will all seat together but this do not happen before this year's mid-year review so for us it just came as a surprise, we were not expecting communication services tax to go up especially for this government that has been pushing the digital agenda and for you to be able to do this what is required is telecommunication services and it impacts on everybody in the economy, by increasing CST bare in mind last year based on the re-engineering of BAT and the two levies and all of that there was an increase of the taxation on consumers and you are going to slam this on them?
"If you are not careful because the demand for telecommunication is not inelastic if you not careful the maximum return on this increment might not......so you might not raise the additional tax that you want....," he added.
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