CST target for 2020 exceeded by 63% - GRA boss reveals

Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has revealed that the Authority has exceeded targets for the Communications Service Tax (CST) by 63%.

Amishaddai Owusu-Amoah said on Friday that the target was exceeded in August 2020, for months to the end of the year.

CST is charged only by electronic communications service providers who are in the provision of electronic communication classified by the National Communications Authority under the provisions of the National Communications Regulations.

The CST was introduced in 2008 at an ad valorem rate of 6%.

In 2018 the tax brought in a total of GH¢420 million, representing a 27.7 per cent increase from the estimated GH¢304 million accrued in 2017.

The telcos started charging customers the revised CST from October 1, 2019, after the Minister of Finance, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, announced an increment in the tax from 6% to 9% in the Supplementary Budget.

The Finance Minister in justifying the increment had said it was aimed at creating a viable technology ecosystem to among other things identify and combat cybercrime.

But in July this year, Ken Ofori-Atta at the presentation of the 2020 mid-year budget review announced the reduction of the tax from 9% to 5%.

Speaking to journalists on Friday, September 11, 2020, in Accra during a Q&A session that followed a media engagement organised at the behest of the GRA, Mr. Owusu-Amoah said GH¢604 million has been mobilised as CST tax as of August 2020.

“The additional revenue that was collected is GH¢604 million and out of this GH¢604 million, if you do the calculations in terms of when it was 6% and when it was at 9%, you see that substantial increase is not so much coming from 9% only, but also from the volume of transactions that are being done by the telcos,” he said.

He said when the new 5% takes effect from September 15, 2020, the GRA expects to see even more high volumes for CST tax revenues.