The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) says the implementation of the Electronic Transactions Levy (e-levy) has been very smooth.

This is according to Mrs Florence Asante, the Head of Communication and Public Affairs at the Authority.

Mrs Asante is, this, asking Ghanaians with grievances to call the Authority via its toll number and get them addressed.

“From the side of the Ghana Revenue Authority, the implementation of the Electronic Transfer Levy has generally been very smooth. We commenced implementation on Sunday, May 1. We had a lot of collaboration with our charging entities, and they are the banks, electronic money issuers, payment service providers, and specialised deposit-taking institutions.”

“So we went into collaborations with all these institutions and businesses and together with them, we planned on how we were going to implement the levy and that accounted for the smooth introduction of the levy.”

She also said the Authority is in constant engagement with the charging entities for the smooth use of the common platform.

The e-Levy is 1.5% on all electronic transfers.

It was rolled out by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) on May 1, after the E-levy Bill was passed by Parliament and subsequently assented to by President Akufo-Addo.

The implementation of the levy was initially greeted with displeasure from the public domain, with panic withdrawals hitting various mobile money vending stations.

Others also complained about wrongful deductions which resulted from transactions that were exempt, but the Authority has been refunding those deductions.

However, the GRA, in collaboration with the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications and other stakeholders, heightened sensitization on the tax measure to assuage the public’s fears and restore their confidence in the usage of electronic wallets.