Bussiness
Eli Hini commends MTN’s contributions to national revenue
General Manager of MTN Mobile Money, Eli Hini
Mr Eli Hini, Chief Executive Officer of Mobile Money Limited, a subsidiary of MTN Ghana has touted the company’s contributions to the national revenue and development of the local economy saying, “we’re a good corporate citizen.”
He disclosed that MTN Ghana contributed of GH¢3.1 billion revenue to the state in 2021 by paying GH¢2.54 billion in overall taxes, representing 4.4 per cent of total national tax revenue.
The Company also paid GH¢119 million as National Fiscal Stabilisation Levy (NFSL), representing 18 per cent of overall NFSL paid in Ghana, and GH¢297 million Communication Service Tax (CST), representing 56 per cent of overall CST received in the year.
Mr Hini who made this known during the 2022 edition of the MTN Editors Forum held in Ho for senior media practitioners and other stakeholders in the Volta Region noted that MTN Ghana “provides 500,000 plus jobs through its ecosystem of partnerships and suppliers.”
He added that the company kept supporting local value chains with a greater percentage of money spent on supplies going to local suppliers.
“Total active supplier base is 1,144 with 897 local suppliers. This represents 78 percent of the total active local supplier base in 2021. There was a total spend of GHS3,201,552,901 in the year with local supplier spend being 75 percent.”
Mr Hini said MTN, Ghana’s leading mobile network operator providing voice, data, digital, enterprise and other services had in the past year, sought to transform the network to improve customer experience and through innovations, do more to excite and enhance lives of customers not just in Ghana but Africa by way of “Ambition 2025” for “our strategic intent is to lead digital solutions for Africa’s progress.”
MTN Editors Forum is one of the annual events the company uses to engage, share key highlights of its performances, and plans with the public and solicit feedback from them with the aim of improving service delivery to customers.
Source: GNA
Bussiness
Ghana’s GDP shows economy is fast recovering despite DDEP – Finance Ministry
Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) indicates a rapid economic recovery despite global challenges and ongoing debt restructuring, according to the Ministry of Finance (MoF).
The Ministry in a statement today indicated that latest data from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), cumulative economic growth for the second quarter (Q2) of 2024 reached 6.9%, a notable increase from the 4.7% recorded in the first quarter of 2024.
The MoF statement further noted that, “The economy’s robust recovery is in response to the macroeconomic stability and growth interventions that government is pursuing under our IMF-supported Post Covid-19 Programme for Economic Growth (PC-PEG).”
According to them, the overall real GDP growth for the first half of 2024 rebounded strongly, with year-on-year GDP growth averaging 5.8% for the period, significantly higher than the 2.9% recorded in the same period in 2023.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
Read full statement below
Bussiness
Facebook, Youtube, online trading companies must be taxed – Deputy Finance Minister
The Deputy Finance Minister Dr Alex Ampaabeng, has proposed that online trading companies should be taxed to bolster the economy.
He noted that these companies, both local and international, generate significant revenue from their Ghanaian clients, which underscores the necessity for taxation.
In an interview with Bernard Avle on Channel One TV’s The Point of View, Dr Ampaabeng pointed out various potential revenue sources for Ghana, including online businesses and content creation companies.
He questioned why other national companies operating in Ghana are taxed, but social media platforms like Youtube and Facebook, which run numerous advertisements, are not included in the Ghanaian tax system.
According to him, these social media companies earn profits from the advertisements they display, and online trading companies also generate income from the sale of their products and services.
He mentioned online trading companies such as Jiji, Jumia, and Tonaton, which he believes surpass all physical marketplaces in Ghana in size.
According to him, “I can’t think of a country which has not gotten a digital service tax system of some sort, so Ghana is long overdue. Just to make an example so that people will appreciate where I’m coming from. Go to Youtube and play a video, within one or two minutes, you are going to watch about two, or three adverts.”
“What it tells you is that Facebook or Youtube is making profits right here in Ghana. Go to your Facebook account, and you are going to see a number of adverts on your right, left. What it is telling you is that Facebook is making profits right here in Ghana and not being taxed. Meanwhile, there are companies operating in Ghana, for jurisdiction reasons, of course, that are being taxed,” he said.
The Deputy Minister added that “So then, it comes to the question of the application of our tax laws. Revenues generated in Ghana are subject to taxes. We have Facebook, TikTok and all those players, these are digital platform owners.”
He stressed, “Then we have the digital or market players, here we are talking about individuals who are using the digital platforms. We have Jiji, Jumia, Tonaton, these combined, are bigger than all physical marketplaces in Ghana. And it tells you the volume of transactions, that are going on there.”
He expressed his hope that individuals earning online profits from Ghanaian residents would be taxed.
“There are conversations ongoing, I wouldn’t want to pre-empt anything, maybe in the future, it might not be anytime soon, what I would like to see, is a Ghana where people who are earning all forms of profits in the country are subject to taxes. People who are trading online to Ghanaian residents, people who are generating revenue from Ghana are allowed to pay taxes,” he noted.
Additionally, he proposed a collaboration with the government to curb cybercrime by registering and verifying these online trading companies.
“We can have a system where the government engages these operators, so individuals will submit their Ghana Card and are registered and verified,”he concluded.
Source: Citinewsroom.com
