Telcos disrupt NCA’s Common Platform

Some Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) are said not to be in favour of government’s decision to access mobile money transaction data through the Common Platform (CP) of the National Communications Authority (NCA).

Fearing that the CP will expose them, they are allegedly working to have the contract withdrawn.

According to sources at the NCA, some telcos have been allegedly under-declaring their revenue in order to pay less tax to government.

The Common Platform (CP), which is expected to bring an end to this suspicion, according to the NCA, is expected to provide actual real time information for the confirmation of costs of telecommunications services used by customers and help the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to fully calculate specific taxes for telcos.

Unlike the old practice whereby telecommunications operators paid what they wanted to government as tax, the Common Platform would independently value all mobile money transactions, within and across each telecom operator’s network, allowing government, through the GRA, to readily calculate government’s portion of taxes as the transactions happen.

This has attracted the ill-will of operators.

In June, this year, Minister of Communications, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, said government was not sure whether information provided by the telcos was “accurate.”

According to her, it had been proven that network operators in Ghana had not always provided all the information that they ought to.

“In 2012 the NCA did an audit of the 1% of the revenues that they are supposed to be paying to the NCA.”

“It was discovered that all the telcos have been under declaring and underpaying the 1% of the revenue they were required to pay,” she revealed.

“It’s imperative that we hold their feet to the fire, so to speak and crosscheck all the information they provide…it’s legitimate government takes its cut from the money they make,” Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful said.

The Common Platform solution installed by common platform solution will save government and people of Ghana approximately (GH¢297 million).

The project allows Ghana to make a huge saving of 55% on the costs of the two contracts that previously existed.

For less than half the price, the Common Platform service offers additional features in actual real-time call volume and value verification and confirmation, processing and reporting, mobile money reporting and SIM-Box fraud detection and identification.

Additionally, the Common Platform would save the government more than USD$1.1 million monthly or USD$66 million over the five-year term of the contract.