The Member of Parliament for Mpraeso, Davis Ansah Opoku has charged the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to put systems in place to monitor revenue collected by tech giants, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter (X) and betting companies.

He made the call after the GRA’s admission that no monitoring system is currently in place to check how much tax these social media platforms and betting companies collect from subscribers on behalf of the government.

Querying the GRA at the Public Accounts Committee Sitting on Monday, the Mpraeso MP noted that for instance; “if you want to generate money on YouTube, you need to create a PayPal account.
Meanwhile, PayPal does not operate in Ghana. They sit in the US and these countries collect those monies and taxes. So I want to know how you track those monies for us to get our share.”

His concern was shared by Member of Parliament for Ningo-Prampram, Sam George. According to him, the challenge is not only with the social media giants but betting companies as well.

“Previously, to have a verified account on Facebook, Twitter, and the rest, they only charge you a flat rate. But now, the rate comes with a tax charge. Not only that, betting companies also charge the young people of Ghana betting tax. Meanwhile, the betting companies do not have their servers sitting here in Ghana. So, how you are able to monitor the exact amount collected and tax same?” he quizzed.

Responding to the questions, the Commissioner in charge of the Domestic Tax Revenue Division of GRA, Edward Apenteng Gyamerah said although the Authority has initiated the e-commerce tax collection, there are no monitoring systems.

“Mr Chairman, I agree with you. We have started. E-commerce taxation has just started and the next stage is to get the monitoring system to monitor their activities” he said.

When quizzed further, Mr Apenteng Gyamerah said “Currently, we are using the self-assessment approach where these companies are required to file and pay the taxes that they have generated in Ghana, by themselves. So the next stage as I have explained, is to get a system to monitor their business operations.”

He concluded that although they may not be collecting all taxes due to the GRA, whatever they pay is better than when these companies did not pay anything to the government.

The Mpraeso MP, Davis Ansah Opoku however, urged the GRA to fast-track the move to get this system in place to maximize revenue mobilization.