Member of Parliament for Tano North, Dr. Gideon Boako has expressed concern about the Mahama administration’s plan to remove tax components introduced by the previous government.
President Mahama and his Finance Minister-Designate, Dr. Cassiel Atto Forson have been expressing a firm decision to abolish certain tax components including betting tax and E-levy, a tax component introduced on electronic transactions. This has been a campaign promise that has been well received by the youth.
However, following his election and assumption of office, there have been discussions about whether or not such a promise of his is indeed, reasonable for the economy, with others advocating for the betting tax to be rather increased to demotivate the youth from engaging in reckless betting.
Dr. Boako fears that there could be an introduction of new tax components under the Mahama administration in place of the possible cancellation of the aforementioned taxes. This, he warns could derail Ghana’s fiscal commitment under its International Monetary Funds (IMF) programme.
“We don’t want a situation whereby you give with your left hand and you take with your right hand. They have to be explicit. If they are cutting the taxes, they cut the taxes, they don’t introduce any new taxes, you cannot cancel or scrap e-levy, scrap betting tax, and go behind and create another tax to fill the gap.
“If they indeed want to scrap e-levy, betting tax, the COVID-19, the emission taxes, the only other thing they can do in order to match up with the debt service to revenue ratio as enshrined in the IMF programme and captured in the debt sustainability analysis is to have another tax introduced through the back door to make up for the shortfall. Other than that they do not have any other room.”
During the vetting of the Finance Minister-designate, Dr. Atto Forson, he reiterated his plan to remove the said taxes, especially betting tax, explaining that revenues generated from the tax component amounts to just Ghc 50 million a year, a rate so low without which the country could still perform well economically.
According to him, if betting is viewed as a destructive element to the youth, the option should be to ban it rather than introduce tax.
“As Minister of Finace, as part of my first budget, i will abolish the betting tax. If betting is seen as an activity that destroys the youth like my colleague Kojo Oppong Nkrumah suggested in the past, then I believe the best option is to abolish it, not introduce a tax to control or reduce it,” he said.
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