The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has revealed one of the charging entities which owns more than 70% of the population had in excess of GH₵1million for just one day after the start of the implementation on of the e-levy Sunday May 1.
“The letters we sent to the charging entities were that, after every 48 hours, they should send us the Money. So our first Money should have come on Tuesday, but it didn’t come then we went to Wednesday and we saw some making attempts.
“So on Thursday, we went on our internal system [the Tax Application System] and we saw the invoices and we collated the invoices.
“As of the close of Thursday, we had had the invoice of a number of charging entities and one of the charging entities which owns more than 70% of the population had in excess of GH₵1million for just one day. So assuming all the others are not paying and this entity alone sends GH₵1million every day for 30 days.
“This means we are getting GH₵30million per month from just one charging entity,” Head of Project Unit at GRA, Isaac Kwabena Amoako said on Monday May 9.
The GRA has also said that it is monitoring conversation on the e-levy implementation on social media and also assessing the claims that are being made.
After assessment, the genuine clams will be forwarded to the charging entities for the the necessary steps to be taken.
An official at the GRA, Mr Opoku Afryie Asante said while speaking on the Business Focus on TV3 with Alfred Ocansey Monday May 9 that “we are monitoring engagement and feedback on social media to validate the claims to see whether they are accurate.”
Head of Communications and Public Affairs at the GRA, Florence Otoo had earlier indicated the availability of the GRA to receive complaints regarding the implementation of the policy.
She told TV3 in interview that the authority has created hotlines through which the public can reach the GRA to file their complaints.
“If you complain to your charging entity or you have some difficulties or challenges or you have been deducted the e-levy in a wrongful manner and you are not satisfied with what your entity is doing, GRA is also available.
“We have hotlines, we have our toll free line that is 0800900110. If you call that number we will be able to make sure that we are addressing your challenges,” she said.
Since the start of the policy, some customers have reported cases of wrong deductions since the policy started.
But the authority earlier issued guidelines for reversal of wrong deductions. In a statement, the GRA said “Under this phased approach it has been decided that all ‘on-net’ and ‘off-net’ transfers including transfer to own account shall be subject to the e-levy.
“This is because of the lack of visibility across all networks due to the phased approach. However, charging entities are to exempt ‘on-net’ transfers between accounts owned by the same person where the identity of the person can be determined”.
The GRA said it is collating all the feed backs to work on them.
But Isaac Kwabena Amoako, a member of the e-levy Technical Committee of the GRA said on the News 360 on TV3 Sunday May 1,that “On day one of implementation we have been taking feedbacks.
“The category of feed backs that did not meet our design is the fact that people transferring from one network to another network, for some of them they are being charged.
“That seem to be the most prevalent technical issue that is being reported. We have collated some of these concerns, we are talking to the charging entities so that they correct.
“We believe that between now and the following day some of these of these corrections will be made.”
“We have issued out notices that anyone who has genuine or valid reversals they should listen to them, use the current approach that they use for reversals which is 15 working days to collate these concerns , those who have been wrongfully charged should be refunded,” he added.
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana