CST: Telcos deliberately making gov’t unpopular – Assibey-Yeboah

The Chairman of the Finance committee of Parliament, Dr. Mark Assibey-Yeboah, has accused telecommunications companies in the country of bad faith regarding the implementation of the recently increased Communications Service Tax, (CST).

The tax which was reviewed upward from 6 to 9 percent now sees credits of customers deducted at the point of recharge.

The move has resulted in complaints from a wide section of the public against the increment by government.

Speaking to Starr News, after the article 4 review meeting with the International Monetary Fund, Dr. Assibey-Yeboah said the move by the telcos is to make government unpopular.

“Somebody is just being disingenious because it was 6 percent and now it is 9 percent…previously we didn’t state it explicitly that if you bought credits of 10 cedis 6 percent is not for you..as to why they didn’t state it I cannot explain.

“But now somebody thinks that to make government unpopular I have to state the full extent of the CST. So now people are complaining. You were still getting 9 cedis 40 pesewas except that it was not being stated,” Dr. Assibey-Yeboah told Starr News’ Ibrahim Alhassan.

Dr. Assibey-Yeboah, however, disclosed government will not introduce or increase taxes in the 2020 budget.