Majority of Ghanaians are said to have changed their behavior towards the electronic transfer of funds since the E-Levy kicked in back in May this year.
According
to a study, 83% of the populace felt compelled to do so in order to adjust to
the limits introduced by the said levy as far as their livelihoods are concerned.
These were
part of research findings on the effect of the new tax slapped on citizens
geared towards shoring up revenue for the government.
The IMANI
Digital Financial Services Research Project looked into the impact of the 1.5%
tax on the coping mechanisms thereof.
“To assess
the impact of the e-levy on the use of digital financial services, we first
assessed how often people use digital financial services accounts (such as
mobile money) in a typical week and then asked further questions on how it has
affected the volume of mobile money transactions they make.”
Highlights
of the report revealed that out of the 83% who reassessed their electronic
financial dealings nearly half of them reduced the rate at which they engaged
in MoMo transactions.
“Of this
number, about 47% indicated that they had reduced the number of mobile money
transactions by about 51% to 100%,”
“Another
25% indicated that they had reduced their transactions by about 10% to 50%.
Only about 1.6% of respondents indicated that their transaction volumes have
stayed or increased their volume.”
Meanwhile,
in terms of the regularity of transfers, the results were even.
he
June 22 report also found that “about 31% of respondents indicated that they
make between 1-2, 3-5 or more than five transfers per week.”
The study
conducted by IMANI Centre for Policy and Education in collaboration with
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
Source: myjoyonline