Peasant Farmers Oppose E-Levy on MoMo

The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) says it does not support the Electronic Transaction Tax on mobile money as it will increase the tax burden on smallholder farmers and rural people.

Dr Charles Nyaaba, Head of Programmes and Advocacy at PFAG, said they recognized the need for government to raise revenue to develop the country through taxes, but they disagree with the government on this tax.

He said while acknowledging the exemption of transactions of less than GH¢100.00, a day to cater for the vulnerable, which included smallholder farmers, it must be noted that the expenditure of a smallholder farmer regarding agricultural inputs and services on even a two-acre land was more than GH¢500.00 and each transaction could amount to more than GH¢100.00 a day.

Dr Nyaaba was speaking at a Post Budget Analysis press conference on the implications of the 2022 budget to the Agricultural Sector development in Ghana on Friday.

He said the anticipated inconvenience and refusal of service providers to receive staggered payments just for the sender to stay within the limit would further frustrate the smallholder farmer, who was already saddled with increasing input and service costs.

‘’PFAG is of the view that government either cancels this tax or increase the transaction cost to raise the daily cumulative exemption per person from GH¢100.00 to GH¢1000.00. This is because most farmers adopt electronic platforms for paying their workers,” he added.

He said the use of electronic platforms had provided a secured, safe, and easier mode of payment for the majority of their farmers and they believed that majority of farmers would fall out of the exemption threshold.

Dr Nyaaba said this would make farmers result to alternative methods of transactions to avoid this tax, including cash payment but such methods would put farmers at risk of robbery, considering the high levels of robbery cases lately.