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Opposition frowns as parliament approves ‘controversial’ E-Levy in Ghana

Published

1 year ago

March 30, 2022

The legislature in Ghana has approved a new contested tax on electronic transactions which will introduce a 1.5 percent taxation on electronic money transfers and according to the government, help raise $900m in much-needed revenue.

The new tax, which is known as the E-levy has sparked widespread popular criticism in the West African country.

Ghana’s Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, Ken Ofori-Atta in the 2022 budget statement and economic policy that was presented before parliament in November 2021 revealed the government’s intention to tax all electronic transactions in the informal sector to cover the tax net.

Opposition legislators however staged a walkout of debates while the majority went on to pass the bill into act.

“The Electronic Transfer Levy duly read today after the consideration stage has been passed,” Alban Bagbin, the speaker of parliament said.

Before they walking out of the debate however, opposition legislators dismissed the new tax as unfair.

A lawmaker from the opposition, Isaac Adongo said “the people have roundly rejected the e-levy and our constituents have told us to reject it, so why is the president imposing it on us?”

“What is the crime of Ghanaians that now the government wants to use their pockets as collateral?” Adongo remarked.

The newly passed E-levy would cover all inward remittances (which would be paid by the recipient), all person-to-person (P2P) mobile transactions (which includes sending of funds to another account, payment for goods and services, payment of utilities, all POS/Merchant payments.

A number of African countries have expanded the scope of their indirect taxes to cover digital services, but only a few have thus far implemented some form of direct digital services tax that applies to non-residents with no physical presence in their respective countries.

Earlier, this month, africanewswatch.com reported that Rwanda like Nigeria and Zimbabwe announced plans to tax online services and digital companies consumed within the country.

Related Topics:E-levy Featured Ghana President Nana Akufo-Addo

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Court stops Facebook’s dismissal of content moderators in Kenya

Published

7 hours ago

June 4, 2023

Ifeoluwa Dada

The mass retrenchment by a subcontractor for Facebook’s parent company, Meta has been stopped by a court in Kenya.

The court obliged the prayer of 184 content moderators employed in Nairobi by Sama, an outsourcing firm for Meta, who claimed their dismissal was “unlawful”.

Judge Byram Ongaya said Meta and Sama were “restrained from terminating the contracts” pending the determination of the lawsuit challenging the legality of the dismissal.

“An interim order is hereby issued that any contracts that were to lapse before the determination of the petition be extended” until the case is settled, the judge added.

The court also ordered to “provide proper medical, psychiatric and psychological care for the petitioners and other Facebook content moderators”.

Mercy Mutemi, the petitioners’ lawyer, while commending the ruling, said it was “critical that the court found Facebook to be the true employer of its moderators,” adding that they were “very pleased” with the orders.

“This ruling is significant not only for the petitioners but for the entire social media and artificial intelligence industry,” Mutemi said in a statement.

Another local NGO and two Ethiopian citizens have also accused the tech giant of failing to act against online hate speech in Africa. The complainants claimed that this inaction resulted in the murder of an Ethiopian university professor and demanded the establishment of a $1.6 billion fund to compensate the victims.

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South Africa: Power rotation suspended ‘until further notice’ —Eskom

Published

1 day ago

June 3, 2023

Ifeoluwa Dada

South Africa’s state utility firm, Eskom has announced that its power rotation has been suspended “until further notice”.

The situation with the country’s electricity has been critical in recent months and load shedding exercises have gone as high as twelve hours a day.

Eskom spokeswoman, Daphne Mokwena told journalists “Load shedding was suspended today at 11:40 am (09:40 GMT) and until further notice, thanks to improved generation capacity and lower demand.”

“It is not possible to predict at this stage how long the suspension will last. We encourage the public to monitor their consumption, especially during peak hours,” stressed Ms. Mokwena, adding that load shedding could otherwise resume “at any time”.

The firm said it would immediately communicate any significant changes in the new development which South Africans would be hoping lasts long.

President Cyril Ramaphosa in February declared the situation a disaster and appointed a Minister of Electricity, in an attempt to get out of the crisis.

South Africa still draws 80% of its electricity from coal. A $98 billion investment plan was approved by rich countries last year at COP27 as part of an agreement for a “just transition” to clean energy.

Being one of Africa’s most industrialized economies, the power outages have threatened businesses and the general economy of the country. One of its leading companies, Tiger Brands had during the week revealed that its revenues were expected to drop due to the prolonged power challenges.