Parliament abolishes E-Levy
By Nana Afrane Asante
Parliament on Wednesday March 26, 2025, officially approved the Electronic Transfer Levy Repeal Bill 2025, effectively abolishing E-Levy.
The Electronic Transfer Levy also known as E-levy, introduced in 2022, imposed a 1 per cent tax on electronic transactions, including mobile money payments, bank transfers, and inward remittances.
This repeal is expected to ease financial pressures on the citizens and boost digital commerce.
The E-Levy faced significant opposition from the public and stakeholders, who argued that it placed an additional financial burden on citizens and discouraged digital transactions.
E-levy was a tax applied on transactions made on electronic or digital platforms in Ghana since 29 March 2022. The tax was to mobilise revenue to support entrepreneurship and national development. However, the anticipated proceeds were not realised.
The Finance Minister, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, had earlier announced that the government would be abolishing the E-levy, and the 10% tax on lottery winnings, also known as betting tax.
The Minister announced this when he presented the government’s first budget statement to Parliament on Tuesday, March 11.
The Minister also announced the cancellation of other levies, including the Emissions tax.
He also announced that in an attempt to review the Value Added Tax system, the government will also eventually abolish the COVID-19 levy.
Dr Forson stressed that the government remained committed to social protection programmes, with increased budgetary allocations to the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) Programme, the School Feeding Programme, and the Capitation Grant.
Under the LEAP programme, benefits had been adjusted to reflect inflation, and the number of beneficiary households will increase from 350,000 to 400,000 in July 2025.
The government has also raised the allocation for LEAP benefits by 30.8 per cent, from GH¢728.8 million to GH¢953.5 million.
Furthermore, funding for the School Feeding Programme has been increased, with the cost of feeding per pupil per day going up by 33 per cent.
The repeal of the E-Levy aligns with the government’s efforts to promote financial inclusion and encourage the use of digital payment platforms without imposing additional costs on users. Many business owners, mobile money agents, and financial analysts had previously criticised the levy, citing its impact on digital transactions and financial accessibility. With the passage of the Electronic Transfer Levy (Repeal) Bill 2025, Ghana’s financial sector is expected to witness increased electronic transactions, boosting digital commerce and economic
