Government has revised its target of the Electronic Transaction Levy, commonly called E-levy to GH¢611million from initial estimate of GHC6.9 billion.
Per the 2022 budget statement, the target was ¢6,963,386,254 but it has been revised downward to GHC611,000,000, according to the budget review presented to Parliament by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta on Monday July 25.
The new tax which many Ghanaians have opposed vehemently has only raked in ¢93.7 million, from the ¢1.46 billion target for the first half of this year.
However, the value of Mobile Money transactions which the levy largely is obtained has not dipped significantly, according to data from the Bank of Ghana.
In the month of May 2022 that E-Levy was implemented, Mobile Money transactions declined by18.58 percent to ¢71.4 billion.
However, in the month of June 2022, the transactions via Mobile Money rise up to ¢77.4 billion, an 8.4 percent growth.
According to data from the Bank of Ghana, Mobile Money transactions grew consecutively until April 2022 when it dipped slightly.
The Mobile Money transactions in the first four months of this year were January 2022 (GH¢76.2 billion), February 2022 (GH¢76.8 billion), March 2022 (GH¢90.5 billion) and April 2022 (¢87.7 billion) respectively.
Regarding Value Added Tax (VAT) the expected revenue has been adjusted upwards from the initial GH¢14,534,864,446 to GH¢15,402,925,770.
It is recalled that the government earlier indicated that a number of the revenue handlers including the VAT were underperforming.
By Vincent Kubi