Ghana's government is gunning for more communication taxes as it plans to slap new taxes on Whatsapp and Facebook calls after it ignored all public protests and vandalized the law to force down the controversial e-levy on Ghanaians.
The services known as Over-The-Top (OTT) digital services would soon be prohibitive as consumers in Ghana add that to the array of nuisance taxes that have been introduced by the government.
This was revealed by Communications and Digitalization Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful while addressing the Mobile Technology for Development (MT4D) conference in Accra.
Explaining the government’s new covetousness, Madam Owusu-Ekuful said tax revenue from traditional voice call services from Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) are dwindling because people are now drifting away and are resorting more to OTT services in order to cut communications cost.
“We are determined to accelerate the use of digital technology, applications and services at all levels, build and protect our digital infrastructure, and enhance the capacity and digital skills acquisition of our youth. As you may be aware, it is only through tax revenue mobilisation that such investments and more can be funded,” the minister explained.
“Currently, government is losing huge revenues from the MNOs to OTT digital service providers as traditional sources of telecoms revenue like voice declines. It is important that we have a frank, open dialogue on this, and explore other sources of revenue within the digital services space to improve government domestic revenue mobilization,” Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful said.
OTT digital services are media services offered directly to telecommunication customers via the Internet rather than traditional channels of signal delivery such as cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms.
WhatsApp, Zoom, Facebook, and Skype among others are all OTT digital services platforms.
It is not clear on what basis the Akufo-Addo government can tax these services since these platforms are owned by foreign corporations and operate via the internet which is also not owned by Ghana.
Meanwhile, the revelation of the intent to tax social media is coming at a time the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications has intensified its advocacy for the removal of the law that imposes a 19 cents per minute charge for inbound international calls on telecommunication companies.
The Chamber laments that revenue that has accrued to the state and the telecommunications companies declined by over 200 percent in the past nine years since the law was introduced. In 2010 revenue accrued stood at about GH¢360million, but that figure has declined to some GH¢107million in 2019.
Already a 1.5% tax on mobile money services has annoyed many Ghanaians into at least temporarily abandoning MoMo platforms.
