1.5% E-Levy reduction: What it means for Ghanaians

Mobilemoney (MoMo) service providers commenced the implementation of the 1 percent Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy) on electronic money transfers on Wednesday, January 11, 2023.

The implementation of the new E-Levy charge comes after Parliament approved a proposal by the government to amend the rate of the levy from the initial 1.5 percent to 1 percent.

Parliament, however, did not approve the government’s proposal to remove the GHC 100 daily threshold that will attract the Electronic Transfer Levy.

So, how will the reduction in the E-levy rate impact the livelihood of Ghanaians?

If a Momo user in a day transfers GHC 150 to another Momo user, only GHC 50 can be charged the 1 percent E-Levy.

So, the person will now be charged only GHC 0.5 (GHp 50) compared to GHC 0.75 (GHp 75), s/he will be paying when the levy was 1.5 percent.

For a GHC 500 transfer, GHC 400 will be charged E-Levy which correspondence to GHC 4 compared to the GHC 6 the person will have paid when the levy was 1.5 percent.

Below is a table of E-Levy transactions and their corresponding changes plus the saving (reductions) Momo users are enjoying now:

But E-Levy is not the only tax, mobile money users are going to pay. In addition, to the levy, Momo users are also supposed to pay telecommunication (telco) charges depending on their service provider.

So, for example, using the telco charges of the largest Momo issuer in Ghana, MTN, 0.75 percent, an accumulative daily transfer of GHC 150 will attract an E-Levy of GHC 0.5 and a telco charge of GHC 1.125, making the total tax on the transfer GHC 1.625.

Below is a list of the total charges Momo users will be paying with the new 1 percent E-Levy: