THE GHANA Chamber of Telecommunications has
announced the decision of telecommunication companies to discontinue the
upfront deductions of the Communications Service Tax (CST) from every recharge
of consumers.
A recent statement issued by the chamber said
telcos had resolved to exact the tax through a tariff adjustment programme beginning
November 26, 2019.
According to the chamber, in tandem with this new
development, it would fall on the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to do the calculation
of the CST.
It also said telcos needed some weeks to complete
the reconfiguration of their systems to accommodate the
commercial and technical requirement that the exercise necessitated to ensure a
smooth experience for consumers.
The chamber said, “For the past few weeks, there
have been several discussions on the implementation of the CST. The members of
the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications would like to reassure its customers
that we have acted in good faith considering our intentions to engage all
relevant agencies following the passage of the CST Amendment Law. The mobile
industry considers the upfront deduction legal and implemented the current CST
based on alignment with how the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) calculates and charges
the CST.”
The chamber, however, highlighted, “We understand
stakeholders’ concerns and have aligned on the current agreement to implement a
price increase to pass on the tax instead of upfront deductions. It is worth
noting that despite this arrangement to stop upfront deductions, GRA will still
calculate and account for the CST as an upfront charge.”
The CST, introduced in 2008, was fixed at 6 per
cent for consumers of some electronic communication services.
However, the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta,
in his 2019 mid-year budget, announced a 50 per cent increment in the CST.
Telcos were unhappy with this development hence
they resorted to deduct CST upfront on all recharges made by their consumers from
October 1, this year, with SMS notifications to them.
