The Minister for Communications, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has issued a one month ultimatum notice to all the Mobile Network Operators in Ghana to comply fully with the Communications Service Tax (Amendment), Act 2013, Act 864 or incur the wrath of its regulating agency, the National Communications Agency (NCA).
The Mobile Network Operators, according to Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful, have up to June 11, 2018, to grant access to Kelni-GVG Limited, to hook them onto the Common Platform.
This, she noted, will enable Kelni-GVG, the National Communications Authority (NCA) as well as the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to monitor their local and inbound traffic, mobile money, revenue assurance and fraud management. Failure to do so, she added, will result in the imposition of the specified sanctions in the Communications Service Tax (Amendment) , popularly known as Talk Tax.
“We take a dim view of those who will flout our laws with impunity and expect all our corporate citizens to pay their due just as they would in their countries of origin. As His Excellency the President indicated during the CEOs Awards last week, “We must deepen the payment of taxes, and broaden the tax net to include the informal sector in the payment of appropriate taxes. It is particularly important that we enhance the capacity of our tax authorities so that the big players in our economy, i.e. the mining companies, the oil companies, the telecommunication companies, pay their correct taxes. For too long, such companies have been the source of the massive flight of capital from our country and our continent. I am a firm believer in honest profits, but I will not condone illicit financial outflows. We know how injurious they have been to Africa’s development”, she noted.
Addressing Parliament, Thursday, May 31, 2018, over the controversial Kelni-GVG contract, the Communications Minister who is also the lawmaker for Ablekuma West, said the Mobile Network Operators have over the years persisted in denying all the revenue assurance companies contracted by the Government of Ghana to monitor their local and inbound traffic for the purposes of ensuring that they pay the right taxes to the State.
She said it is only Glo and Vodafone that are in the process of doing of granting Kelni-GVG, NCA and the GRA access to their physical network nodes.
“The establishment of the Common Platform is a joint effort by the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Communications as required by the Communications Service Tax (Amendment) Act, 2013, Act 864 and the platform will eventually be handed over to the NCA and GRA after the contractual period”.
“Mr. Speaker, equipment installation is almost complete and the platform is expected to be fully operational in July this year. Some services have already commenced and all the Mobile Network Operators are required to cooperate fully with the NCA. I am happy to announce that Vodafone and Glo are expected to be connected by the 11th of June. I expect the others to do so shortly, Their deadline for final connection is 11th June, 2018 and failure or refusal to do so will result in imposition of the specified sanctions. We will have real time monitoring and will physically connect to the network nodes of all the operators as enjoined by law”, Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful posited.
