The CEO of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications has described the repeal of the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy) as a positive development that will benefit Ghanaians and the telecom sector.

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express on Wednesday, March 26, Dr. Kenneth Ashigbey commended the government for following through on its promise to abolish the tax.

• Read also: Parliament passes bill to abolish E-Levy; President Mahama’s assent expected

“For me, I think it's a good policy that the government has been able to make a promise and move from a manifesto promise to a budget, and then a bill has been passed. This is happening, so this is positive,” he said.

Dr. Ashigbey revealed that the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has scheduled a meeting with telecom operators on Friday, March 29, to discuss the technical processes required to implement the repeal.

“The GRA has invited us for a meeting, so we'll have a meeting on Friday morning. After that, as we await the President to assent to the bill, we will also be getting the guidelines around this repeal.”

He stated that the removal of the E-Levy requires technical adjustments to various systems, ensuring a smooth transition without disrupting mobile money and other electronic transactions.

• Read also: E-levy was a massive error committed by Ofori-Atta, it was a bad policy – Dr. Ashigbey

“There will be some technical work that has to be done to make sure that we can reset E-Levy to zero. The thing about it is that it has effects on various systems as well. So all of that work will be done.”

While acknowledging the urgency of implementing the repeal, he stressed the need for caution to avoid unintended consequences.

“Because we know that this is something that will inure to the benefit of our customers, we want to do it quickly. But we also have to make sure we don’t have any unintended consequences,” Dr Ashibey added.

Parliament passed the E-Levy repeal bill on Wednesday, March 26, and it now awaits President John Mahama’s assent.

The tax, introduced in 2022 by the previous New Patriotic Party administration, imposed a 1.5% charge on electronic transactions, including mobile money transfers, bank transfers, and online payments.