E-Levy: GRA vindicates Sam George; May 1 unrealistic for implementation

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) legislator on Thursday, April 28, told Joy News that the GRA is not in the position to execute the processes that will ensure the effective run of the controversial E-Levy.

His views sounded contrary to what the Commissioner-General of the GRA, Rev Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah had to Ghanaians earlier.

The GRA boss gave the assurance that his outfit was ready and set to roll out the smooth implementation of the electronic tax charges.

But Mr. Sam George had also insisted that this was impossible because the Application Programming Interface (API) and the security architecture have not been made available to the telecommunications companies (Telcos).

“I can speak on authority that as at close of day as late as 11 pm last night (Wednesday, April 27), when the Commissioner-General for the GRA says all the APIs have been given to all Electronic Money Issuers (EMI) is incorrect. At least two APIs are still outstanding,” he said.

The MP further explained that: “critical amongst the two is the reversal API. The GRA at the last technical meeting admitted that because all the robustness tests have not been done for the system, there’s a possibility of downtimes where when you place a call to the API to do all the checks before a tax is applied or not applied, and it’s possible that you will not get the checks done in real-time”.

He added that this is likely to create problems, including the likelihood of sparking confusion at Mobile money vending points.

The lawmaker has also questioned whether the payment of tithes and other religious obligations will be affected by the levy.

“An issue that has not been clarified is the tithe and offerings and the Zakat in the mosque. We know that we can now pay these online. Now, the exemptions that have been given have not been given to churches,” in spite of the suggestion that churches should go and register as merchants.

Meanwhile, the decision of the government to begin the implementation of the E-levy has become questionable because the GRA on Thursday, April 28 released a statement indicating a modification of the approach for the implementation of levy.

GRA release notice on E-Levy implementation Pulse Ghana

In a statement, the GRA said “Following the Ghana Revenue Authority’s assessment of the general readiness of some Charging Entities to integrate with the E-levy Management System, the Commissioner General has decided on a modified phased approach for the implementation of the e-levy from 1st May.”