2025 Budget: Emission Tax was never implemented – Dr Amin Adam

3 News

Tue 11th Mar, 2025 17:58

Former Minister of Finance Dr Mohammed Amin Adam has said that the Emission Tax was never implemented hence he was surprised at the comment by current Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson that the Mahama administration has abolished the Emission Tax.

In  post on his Facebook page reacting to the budget presentation on Tuesday March 11, the Karag Lawmaker said “NDC’s Tax Deception: Emmission tax -This was not inplemented and so it can’t be abolished.

“Betting Tax – The tax applies to lottery wins and betting wins. What the Minister said he is abolishing is the lottery wins which knowingly or unknowingly he called it “betting tax”. We have never collected the tax on lottery wins so it cannot be abolished.

“This is what the Minister said in the budget. “we will abolish the 10% withholding tax on winnings from lottery, otherwise known as the “Betting Tax”.

“VAT on Motor vehicle – There is no VAT on motor vehicles insurance being collected currently. It can’t be abolished.”

Earlier while addressing the media in Parliament shortly after the presentation of the budget, Dr. Amin Adam accused the government of deceiving Ghanaians by committing to abolish the VAT on motor insurance and the betting tax.

He claimed that the previous NPP administration never implemented the betting tax and VAT on motor insurance, hence Ghanaians should not rejoice over the announcement to remove these taxes as they never existed.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, betting tax that they said they had abolished, we never collected betting tax. We never implemented the betting tax so to come and tell Ghanaians that you have abolished something that was never implemented is to deceive the people of Ghana,” he stated.

Following the passage of the Income Tax Act, 2023 (Act 1094), the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) announced that it will begin implementing a 10% withholding tax on all gross gaming winnings from August 15, 2023.

The GRA explained that the withholding tax will be charged on profits accrued after each win and that the existing 15% Value Added Tax (VAT) rate on each stake will no longer be charged.

The GRA said that the new policy is in line with an amendment to the Income Tax Act 2023 (No.2), Act 1094.

The betting tax was implemented with the hope of curbing the rate of gambling and generating more revenue for the country.

However, the move was met with widespread dismay by Ghanaian bettors, who felt the government was being insensitive to their plight.

READ ALSO: We will abolish the 10% betting tax -Cassiel Ato Forson, Finance Minister

Many youth urged President Mahama prior to the 2024 elections to scrap the tax. The NDC promised to abolish the betting tax if elected, a key factor which mobilized the youth to vote for the party in the 2024 elections.

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