Parliament on Tuesday passed the Communication Service Tax Amendment Bill; paving way for government to compel the various service providers to raise a total of 45 million Ghana cedis.

The alleged amount is an amount owed the state in tax arrears.

The bill was introduced into Parliament by the Finance Ministry with proposals to clarify aspects of the original act thought to have ambiguities regarding interconnectivity-related levies.

Deputy Finance Minister, Cassiel Ato Forson said government only seeks to clarify issues with the amendment.

Meanwhile the amendment deleted the clause that proposed that tax be paid by the recipient of foreign calls.

Mr. Ato Forson however, said communication service providers should be okay without an increase in call rates. According to him there will be no condition for an upward adjustment in call rates from communication service providers.

‘’There should not be any justification for call rates to go up on condition of the CST taxation.”

Meanwhile the Chief Executive of the Ghana Chamber of

Telecommunications, Kwaku Sakyi Addo said government failed to address the concerns raised by the chamber. “Our understanding was that the bill was withdrawn for further consultations, but there has not been any consultation with us [ Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications].’’

‘’We had taken initiatives to meet with government but it had not happened;and this actually came to us as a bit of surprise.”

Mr. Sakyi Addo expressed disappointment and said he is hopeful that the chamber gets its point across in spite of the passage of the bill.

Source: Citi FM