SIM cards, devices of E-Levy fraudsters will be blocked – Ken Ashigbey

Government imposes 1.5% tax on all electronic transactions

Affected Ghanaians refunded their monies

Report fraudsters to police, Ken Ashigbey to Ghanaians

Chief Executive Officer of the Telecommunications Chamber, Ken Ashigbey, has noted that Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards of fraudsters posing as officials of Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) or charging entities to help refund unlawful E-Levy charges will be blocked.

He added that only will the SIM cards of these fraudsters be taken out of the system, but their devices cannot be used with any network in Ghana.

Ken Ashigbey further stated that customers who are called by these fraudsters should report the case to the police for them to be tracked down and arrested.

Speaking in an interview with Citinews, the CEO of Telecommunication Chamber said, “What will happen is that, immediately you report it and the charging entities investigate and find out that it is true, we will block that number and the number will be put on a fraud control dashboard so other charging entities will also block the device that they used. So not only will the SIM cards be taken out of the system, but their devices cannot be used with any network in Ghana.”

"Fortunately for us, we are on this platform with the Bank of Ghana, the cyber security authority and the police cyber fraud unit and when it comes to prosecution, it’s the police that has to handle it, so the other alternative is to report some of these to the police as well so that we can get to the bottom of this and get these people arrested,” he added.

Government commenced the implementation of the E-Levy on May 1, 2022, despite widespread condemnation of the tax policy.

Since the implementation of the E-Levy on May 1, 2022, some Ghanaians have complained about being charged unlawfully.

The Ghana Revenue Authority, in response, assured the affected customers of getting a refund.

Over 128,000 people who were wrongfully levied the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy) have been refunded.

Meanwhile, the charging entities for the E-Levy are telecommunications companies, commercial banks, special deposit-taking institutions and Payment Service Providers (PSPs).

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