The Minority in Parliament yesterday cautioned the government against the passage of the Communications Tax Amendment Bill, 2013 which seeks to impose additional taxes for telephone calls and the use of the Internet.
According to them, some provisions in the talk tax bill breach international conventions.
The bill seeks to, among other things, impose taxes on receivers of international calls and also for the receipt of text messages, as well as electronic mails.
Although the amount to be charged for each call or e-mail has not been stated in the report of the Finance Committee released on Tuesday, information available to the Daily Graphic points to the fact that six United States cents is the proposed charge.
In the bill, a telecommunications operator which fails to comply and exact the charges would face sanctions including a revoking of its operating licence by the National Communications Authority (NCA).
The member for Suhum, Mr Frederick Opare-Ansah, said the move by the government infringed on the Melbourne Convention.
The convention, he said, made it illegal to charge a user for receiving calls from abroad.
He said what was accepted internationally was the levying of people for making calls outside the country and not for receiving calls.
The Majority said the move could result in consequences for the government.
That position of the Minority generated a heated debate on Tuesday and Wednesday with the Majority defending the position of the government.
The Leader of Government Business in Parliament said, among other things, that even if there were consequences, the government should bear it because the decision was a political one.
But if it was illegal, he said, it would not be passed and added that in his view, there was nothing illegal about the bill.
After a heated debate, the Speaker, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, asked that the bill be withdrawn and sent back to the Finance Committee for re-examination and for all the concerns to be addressed.
Meanwhile, information available to the Daily Graphic points to the fact that the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications has protested against the proposed imposition of the new tax and has sent a memorandum to Parliament on the issue.
The paper could, however, not lay hands on the document.
The bill seeks to amend some provisions in the Communications Service Tax, 2008 (Act 754) to clarify the scope and coverage of the tax and to include interconnection services within the tax base.
Clause One amends section one of Act 754 to impose a tax to be known as Communications Service Tax.
Clause Two amends section two of the Act to provide for the tax to be paid together with the electronic communication service charge payable to the service provider by the user of the service. Where the service is received from a source outside Ghana, the tax is to be paid by the user who received the service. The action also clarifies the period within which the tax becomes due.
By Mark – Anthony Vinorkor
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