Ghana's Chamber of Telecommunications has called
on the government to scrap the 20% import duty currently applied to
telecoms equipment and mobile phones.
The trade groups' CEO, Kwaku Sakyi-Addo said that the high import tariff
encourages smuggling and leads to less tax being paid than if it were scrapped
in favour of collecting sales tax on mobile services.
He said that lower upfront costs from a lower import duty would increase
telecoms use, and lead to higher revenues from the Communications Service Tax
(CST). Import duties can be evaded by smuggling, but the CST cannot, so there
would be a net gain for the government he noted.
"The cost of telecoms services in Ghana are among the cheapest in Africa
and can get cheaper if costs are reduced with lower taxes."
"Mobile network operators are eager to deliver quality of service to
customers because there's no other way to generate revenue than to keep
customers connected."
He also cited poor urban planning as a major challenge confronting players in
the telecommunications industry.
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