- Dr. Forson dismisses NPP’s betting tax claims
- GH₵ 80 million collected from betting tax in 2024
- GRA expects GH₵ 1.2 billion in betting tax by Sept 2024
Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has rejected claims made by the previous NPP government that the 10% withholding tax on betting winnings was not implemented.
On Tuesday, Dr. Forson included the 10% withholding tax as part of the list of taxes the government intends to abolish in the 2025 budget statement.
Following the budget reading, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adams, a former finance minister under the NPP administration, stated that the betting tax had not been enforced.
“The betting tax that they claim to have abolished was never collected. So to tell Ghanaians that you’ve abolished something you never implemented is deceiving the people,” he said.
In a prompt rebuttal, Dr. Ato Forson appeared on PM Express on JoyNews that same evening, denying the allegations.
“I don’t believe he is fully informed on this issue because, according to my checks, the tax was implemented in the second half of 2024. Additionally, the government has already collected GH₵ 80 million from the betting tax so far this year. I’m not sure where he’s getting his information from, but it’s inaccurate,” Dr. Forson stated.
In September 2023, Edward Gyambra from the Domestic Tax Revenue Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) confirmed that the authority had collected GH₵ 15 million in betting taxes per month and projected that this amount could increase to GH₵ 60 million by the end of the football season.
“During the first month of implementation, we averaged GH₵ 20 million in gross gaming revenue (GGR). While we’ve just begun the betting season, during the off-peak season, we averaged GH₵ 15 million, and we expect this to grow significantly by May,” Gyambra explained.
By September 2024, the GRA anticipated generating GH₵ 1.2 billion ($78.4 million) in betting tax revenue.
