Sam George Warning to Ghanaians Has Not changed Anything After GRA Explains Why Transactions Below ¢100 Are Been Charged

The Ghana Revenue Authority has explained why the new implementation of the E-levy has been dogged with technical challenges.

On Monday, May 2, most Ghanaians who curiously made transactions to check how the taxation system has besieged were shocked when they found out they were being charged below the stipulated baseline.

Given this, the head of Project Management at GRA Mr. Isaac Kobina Amoako revealed that the challenge faced yesterday was a result of the lack of a connected platform that would host the various charging entities while speaking on Joy News AM Show.

He noted that currently, the charging entities; Telcos, Banks, Payment Service Providers (PSPs), and Specialized deposit-taking institutions; are charging from their systems.

Interacting with host, Benjamin Akakpo, he said, “In our engagement with the charging entities, we were going to go with a (project) where everybody was expected by May 1, to connect to a common platform and start charging using the common platform. But at the last minute, we realized that some of the charging parties came to us that they needed an extension so they can fully configure their system to connect to the common platform.

The Minister allowed that we shouldn’t connect to the common platform on May 1, and we should allow all the charging entities to do the charging on their platforms.”

“So currently, what is happening is that the charging is taking place on each of the charging entity’s system and not through a common system as we envisaged. You are at the mercy of a charging entity’s system so if the system hasn’t been fully configured at their end, then we see some of these challenges,” he added.

Mr. Kobina Amoako admitted that the challenges where off-net transfers to the same person are receiving charges happened during the GRA’s simulation, therefore, was anticipated.

Following this revelation the Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram Sam Narty George, in a sharp refutation revealing how insensitive this government is said Ghanaians should brace themselves for the worst under this government concerning this e-levy.

He also noted that it baffles him that the government pushed for the implementation of the levy although the issue has been dragged to court.

“An abysmal illegality of implementation is what we are witnessing in an attempt to frustrate the injunction case in court. This mess is with on-net transactions oh, wait for the real chaos when the offset & interoperability start. The worst is yet to come. Pray for Ghana,” he said.