The Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications (GCT) has called on the government to review the taxes imposed on telecommunications companies. Members of the Chamber stressed the need to abolish import duty on some telecommunication equipment and smartphones, among others.
This initiative should ease the financial burden on these companies and enable them to invest substantially in improving the quality and coverage of their services in the country. The request follows closely after the Accra High Court's Commercial Division confirmed that MTN Ghana owed 19 million cedis (USD 1.59 million) in back taxes for the period of 2014-2017.
Coinciding with these developments, the 2022 Mobile Industry Transparency Initiative Report disclosed that telecom operators contributed 6.07 billion cedis in taxes and other payments to the government.
The GCT emphasizes that this amount represents approximately 7.28% of the Ghana Revenue Authority's (GRA) tax revenues for the fiscal year in question. Moreover, the telecommunications sector played a role in contributing 2.27% to the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).