Members of the Mobile Money Agents Association of Ghana (MMAAG) have announced an increase in cash-out services effective from July 1st, 2021, meaning that customers will now have to pay more for cash-out services than before.
A statement issued on Monday, June 28, 2021, by the association appealed to customers to bear with them and comply.
The association said, “To the general public, please take note of these new changes of mobile money service charges taking effect from July 1st, 2021, the same day the 10% tax imposition by the government on our cash-out service charge begins. We are pleading with you to comply with our members in their various shops”.
They added, “this is never our wish but we don’t have a choice but the financial commitments are too much and absorbing this leaves us with nothing at the end of the day”.
The increase in charges follows an emergency meeting that took place on June 25th, 2021. The association had complained about a back-door increase in taxes imposed on telecommunication companies by the government, thereby forcing them to pass on the charges to their customers.
According to the association, the government has ordered telecommunication companies to deduct 10% extra from the cash-out service wallets.
“In total, on each network, every agent will be paying 20% tax on a monthly basis. Initially, agents pay 5% on cash-in service wallets but it was secretly increased to 10% without our knowledge. We feel this is a gross disregard to procedures”, they said.
They counted the numerous operational costs aside from the risks of armed robbery, fraud and insecurity, which they say leads to death and loss of huge amounts of money.
They said since the government has not heeded their concerns, they will pass all the costs onto their customers and through a press conference held, informed their momo agents to transfer the cost to their customers.
Source: 3news.com
