Operators of electronic transfer systems in the country have made an appeal to the Finance Ministry not to consider increasing taxes charged on their operations.
They argue that any such move will impede the growth of Ghana’s e-commerce platforms which they describe as a growing one.
The call was made by the players at this year’s Ghana e-commerce expo on the theme, “Unleashing Ghana’s online potential.”
A participant in an interview with Citi Business News said, “I think they have to look at tax systems on financial services, currently if you look at the tax systems on the financial services, you will see that customers will have to pay, the taxes should be reduced (not scrapped) so as to encourage a lot of people to send monies because these days it is quite expensive.”
The Event Director of OML Africa, organizers of the conference, Paul Asino on his part described the current legislation on e-commerce as out of date and called for their amendment to meet dynamic needs of businesses.
“I think a little more needs to be done because some of the laws still in the statutory books do not cover computer fraud. These laws were also created in the sixties where e-commerce may not have been carved. We should be more proactive and whoever is involved should work to ensure they are revised too because it is only with a solid legal framework that we can thrive in such an environment,” Mr. Asino stated.
The Ghana eCommerce Expo was a 2-day business conference and exhibition which attracted delegates comprising managing directors, business owners, CEOs, entrepreneurs, business people as well as those who want to place their businesses online and take advantage of the benefits of trading on the internet.
Meanwhile OML Africa says it will continue its concerted efforts in creating a big platform and enhancing values to all businesses and entrepreneurs who will take advantage of the many advantages of trading online.
It said, “With over 50 million business professionals on Linkedin, 500, 000 Ghanaian-generated tweets daily and over 500 million Facebook users, there is no doubt that any businesses which does not have a strategy of reaching out to this large mass of potential customers, is doomed to fail.”
Source: citifmonline