Seek parliamentary approval for wallet-to-bank charge - Afenyo-Markin urges govt

The Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has urged the government to seek parliamentary approval if it intends to reintroduce the proposed 0.75 per cent wallet-to-bank transfer charge.

He said the government must make its case before Parliament and subject the proposed charge to a vote in the House.

He added that any attempt to impose the charge outside parliamentary approval would amount to an abuse of regulatory power and an attempt to achieve through the back door what could not be achieved through legitimate parliamentary processes.

Mr Afenyo-Markin explained that Article 174 of the 1992 Constitution was clear that no tax could be imposed except by or under the authority of an Act of Parliament.

“A charge on financial transactions that is economically indistinguishable from a levy cannot be made lawful simply by routing it through a private fintech firm instead of the Consolidated Fund,” he said.

Bypassing Parliament

Addressing a press conference in Parliament last Friday, Mr Afenyo-Markin said Parliament had repealed the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy) and that the President subsequently assented to the repeal.

“To allow a Bank of Ghana-regulated entity to impose an equivalent charge is to bypass Parliament and treat the Legislature as an inconvenience,” he stated.

He added that the Bank of Ghana must permanently prohibit any wallet-to-bank or bank-to-wallet charge equivalent to a transaction levy unless authorised by an Act of Parliament.

Reneging on promise

The Minority Leader recalled that in May 2022, then opposition leader John Dramani Mahama, speaking at the Kempinski Hotel in Accra, described the E-Levy as “distortionary”, “burdensome” and a regressive tax that imposed hardship on Ghanaians.

He said Mr Mahama had promised that an NDC government would repeal the levy together with the Communication Service Tax.

Mr Afenyo-Markin said barely 14 months after assenting to the repeal of the levy, the government had permitted Mobile Money Fintech Limited to announce a 0.75 per cent charge on wallet-to-bank transfers effective June 1 this year.

He described the proposed charge as another levy on electronic financial transfers.

“It is the E-Levy in a new coat and under a new name, but identical in substance and effect to the burden President Mahama spent years denouncing,” he stated.

“And no one should pretend this is a private decision in which the government has no stake because the state will take its share when taxes fall due,” he added.

Mr Afenyo-Markin further questioned the authority under which the Bank of Ghana directed the suspension of the charge in what he described as a price-unregulated market, if indeed the government was uninvolved.

Cost of doing business

The Effutu Member of Parliament cited concerns raised by the Freight Forwarders Association of Ghana over the proposed charges.

According to him, freight forwarders relied heavily on wallet-to-bank transfers for customs payments, port charges and supplier settlements.

“They warn it will raise the cost of doing business and erode competitiveness at our ports.”

“These are industry voices, not political ones.

Once again, Ghanaians are being asked to pay for the privilege of moving their own money,” he said.