Betting Tax Hasn’t Been Canceled! – Gideon Boako Sets Record Straight
Member of Parliament for Tano North, Gideon Boako has set the record straight on the betting tax.
The Finance Minister, yesterday at Parliament, presented 2025 budget and stated that the government will abolish the E-Levy and betting tax of 10 percent.
The Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy) and betting tax were introduced by the erstwhile Akufo-Addo administration.
Dr. Forson stated; “We will abolish the 10% withholding tax on winnings from the lottery, otherwise known as the Betting Tax; we will abolish the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy) of 1%.”
Following the budget presentation, the former Finance Minister, Mohammed Amin Adam stated emphatically that the previous government never collected nor implemented the betting tax.
“Betting tax that they said they have abolished, we never collected Betting Tax. So to come and tell Ghanaians that you have abolished something that you have not implemented, is to deceive the people of Ghana”, Dr. Amin Adam said at a press conference by the Minority.
Juxtaposing the position of the Minority against Dr. Ato Forson’s assertion on the betting tax, Dr. Gideon Boako re-echoed that the previous government never charged a 10 percent or any tax on lottery winnings.
He noted that the confusion with the betting tax as put before Parliament by Dr. Ato Forson is that the Finance Minister craftily referred to lottery winnings which had no tax on it under the Akufo-Addo government.
Establishing the difference, he stated that the betting tax was specifically placed on Sports betting alone.
“There is nothing like 10 percent withholding tax on lotto winnings because President Akufo-Addo’s government never changed any Ghanaian 10% on lotto winnings”, he told host Nana Yaw Kesseh on Peace FM’s “Kokrokoo” show.
This, Dr. Gideon Boako noted, means the Minister hasn’t canceled betting tax.
Dr. Boako also touched on the emission tax that Dr. Ato Forson says the government has removed.
Regarding the emission tax, he once again stressed; “The government didn’t charge any person emission tax…The Akufo-Addo government didn’t charge any Ghanaian emission tax, so if Ato Forson says they will cancel it, the question we are asking him is what is he removing when there is no such tax? He also says he will remove VAT on motor vehicle insurance, meanwhile there is no person in Ghana who pays VAT on motor vehicle insurance. So, how do you remove something that is not in existence?”
Source: Ghmessenger.com
