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Proposed tax on talk time shifts to ad valorem
Accra, Jan. 23, Ghanadot/GNA – Government on Wednesday said
it was considering an ad valorem tax proposal by the Telecom
operators instead of a flat rate for the introduction of the
air/talk time tax.
Mr. Fred Opare-Ansah, Deputy Minister of Communication who
announced this during a familiarization tour at the Ghana
Telecom Company said the operators had indicated that a flat
rate would be unfriendly to their system and hence make
implementation difficult.
An Ad valorem tax such as sales or value added tax is a tax
based on the value of a product imposed at a time of a
transaction.
He said: “We’ve had consultation with operators in the
industry organised by the Ministry of Finance and at present
everybody is happy with the current stage of negotiation.
“As you are aware Ghana is moving forward and we need
everybody to make a little contribution,” Mr Opare-Ansah
explained and said a committee had been tasked to look into
the various proposals to make the tax non discriminatory.
The Deputy Minister said government was committed to
ensuring that, operators’ revenues were not affected in any
way when the tax came into force before the end of March
this year.
He said as far as the 2008 budget was concerned, legislation
introducing the tax had already been passed, but what was
left now was the drafting of a specific tariff structure
after which Parliament would review it for passage.
Mr Opare-Ansah, together with some officials from the
Communication Ministry and top executives of the Ghana
Telecom toured the premises of the GT headquarters, the
Ghana Telecom University College at Tesano and the GT Call
Centre at the High Street where monitoring of customers
concerns were carried out.
GNA
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