Ghana Telecomms Operators Oppose International Call Monitoring

The Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications (GCT), comprising all telecom operators in the country, has endorsed a declaration by the West African Telecommunications Conference (WATC) which condemns international call monitoring in Ghana. The WATC issued a communiqué at its recent meeting in Dakar, Senegal on November 25, 2010, describing government's monitoring and imposition of levy and surcharges on incoming international call as a breach of International Telecom Laws, the ECOWAS Treaty and the West African Union Treaty. It condemned the practice and called on all telecom operators in countries where the practice is on-going like Ghana, Guinea and Congo, not to cooperate with any company employed by their respective governments to monitor calls and impose surcharges and levies. 'We recommend that operators in the sub-region should cease all commercial relationships with any firm implicated in the imposition of such a surcharge system,' it said. WATC said it will continue to fight against the imposition of such systems in the sub-region and support all telecom operators to do same. 'We reaffirm our determination to pursue actions against the development of this practice and support operators subjected to this surcharge across our entire economic area,' it said. The Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications said they endorse the position of the WATC. In Ghana, the government has imposed a 19 cent per minute charge on all incoming internationals calls and employed Global Voices Group (GVG) to monitor those calls and ensure that government gets its revenue. The telecom operators have resisted the move from day one, but government has insisted that some operators under-declare international call revenue which affects revenue mobilization in the country. Government also insist that it has evidence that some telecom operators connive with fraudsters to use simboxes to do call by-pass, which enable them to re-route incoming international calls through local SIM cards to make those calls come in as though they were locally generated. Since Ghana government started monitoring and levying incoming international calls, it has generated not less than $15 million in taxes, and Minister of Communications, Haruna Iddrisu has stated emphatically that nothing will stop them from monitoring incoming international calls to check fraud and generate revenue for the state. But WATC, in a communiqué, dubbed 'Dakar Declaration – concerning government surcharges on incoming international traffic,' refuted allegations that operators make false declaration of traffic and are directly involved in the proliferation of simboxes. It said the practice runs counter to point seven of the communiqué issued by the ECOWAS ICT and Telecoms Ministers in Bamako on July 29, 2010, which enjoins member states to avoid levies and surcharges on incoming international calls. 'This tax also runs counter to the trend of lowering settlement fees per the recommendation of the International Telecoms Union (ITU)' of which Ghana's Minister of Communications, Haruna Iddrisu is Chair.' The communiqué said the taxes result in general increase in retail prices that affect both local consumers and those in the Diaspora, and thereby increase the digital divide. It said significant increase in settlement fee and monitoring of calls increases fraud and reduces incoming international calls and revenue and diminishes fiscal receipts. The WATC therefore called on all countries that have imposed or propose to impose such a system to re-consider their action in the interest of the citizens and the sub-region. Meanwhile, Senegal, Gabon, Cote d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso have also agreed to suspend the system in their countries.