The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has warned mobile money dealers not to move money on behalf of consumers to third parties.
It is prohibited, according to Patrick Frimpong Danso, a member of the GRA’s E-Levy Technical Committee, to transmit money to another person using a mobile money dealer.
“It is illegal. You can’t go to a vendor and say take GH¢200 and send it to someone for me. No. When you go to the vendor, you are going to do only two things: to do a cash-out or cash-in. So, either you are withdrawing money or you are putting money in your own wallet,” he told Joy News on Monday, June 30, 2022.
He added that some people use this unlawful method of transmitting cash to avoid the fees associated with electronic transfers.
“… people are trying to beat the 1.5% charged on mobile money and electronic transactions above GH¢100.
“This thing has been happening for a long time but many don’t know it is illegal,” the GRA official stressed.
Mr. Frimpong Danso also informed that the GRA is fine-tuning the E-deployment Levy’s and that they would soon employ technology to avoid fraud.
Meanwhile, the Business & Financial Times (B&FT) revealed last week that, contrary to expectations that the E-levy would cause mobile money agents’ businesses to fail, they appear to be profiting from a new revenue stream — cash-in transactions.
According to the research, some customers’ frantic attempts to evade the E-Levy have resulted in an increase in cash-in and deposit transactions.
