15 December 2022

Actors in the Ghanaian telecommunications sector paid 4.3 billion cedis in taxes and levies during the financial year 2021. These figures represent 7.7% of state revenue during that year.

The total amount includes 883.6 million cedis paid for corporate income tax (CIT), 657.4 million cedis for value added tax (VAT), 722.2 million cedis for withholding tax (WHT), 424.7 million cedis for the tax on communication services (CST).

The contribution of the telecommunications sector in 2021 is higher than that of 2020 when the sector contributed 8.5% to state revenue thanks to the 3.6 billion cedis paid in tax. The contribution of the telecommunications sector to Ghanaian state revenue continues to grow while the industry itself grows, driven by the acceleration of digital transformation.

However, the Ghana Telecommunications Chamber (GTC) has warned that overloading telecom operators with taxes could affect government revenue and slow the growth of the sector. “Given the current economic situation, volumes have gone down, revenues have gone down, but the cost of doing business continues to rise. It affects profitability and if your profitability goes down, 25% of your corporation tax goes down,” said Kenneth Ashigbey of the Ghana Telecommunications Chamber (GTC).