Systems are in place to deduct Ghanaians E-levy—- Chamber of Telecommunications
The Chamber of Telecommunications Chief Executive Officer, Dr Kenneth Ashigbey says plans are far advanced for telecom operators to put in place necessary systems to facilitate the collection of the Electronic levy (E-levy) in May.
Although he is uncertain if the stakeholders will be able to complete the process within the one-month window.
Speaking in an interview with the media in Accra, Dr Ashigbey said telcos operators were aware that the E-Levy bill had already been passed, thus they were working under the clock to put in place the required equipments test it to ensure that they were fit for purpose.
“I can’t say whether one month will be enough time for all of those systems [necessary] because if there are major variations that have been made, we’ll need to see whether all the things we were looking at, at the beginning could be done within months.
From our side, we will do whatever is possible. This is about money, and we don’t want a system where there will be a backlash on it. We need to make sure that we can do the integration with the GRA’s systems and do the user acceptance test and validation to make sure everything is well before we go live. We also know that Parliament has passed the law, and we need to work at that, but those considerations of the practicality of all of that have to be done,” he said.
After President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo assented to the E-levy bill last week, various stakeholders were under pressure to put in place all the necessary infrastructure to ensure full implementation of the law.
Dr Ashigbey in an earlier interview said the full details of the bill were yet to be presented to the Chamber for studies, and it would only be after that, that they would decide and make public how they would implement the tax.
“It was only preparatory engagements that were being done and not as if anybody is implementing anything. What Parliament passes is what becomes law. In terms of the engagements we had with GRA, that was the spirit of the fact that the Bill was before Parliament. Since we had those initial conversations, there hasn’t been any implementation.”
“I have not seen the bill that has been passed, so we have not seen the date in there, so it will depend on what the GRA directs for our members to follow and configure their systems. So, there is still a lot to be done, and we are still waiting,” he added.
Source: www.spotonnews.net
