‘NPP 2038’ - Unknown person shouts in excitement as Ato Forson presents 2025 budget

Ghana’s parliament house was heated as the finance minister delivered the nation’s highly-anticipated 2025 budget in the early hours of Tuesday, March 11, 2025.

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) government under the leadership of President John Dramani Mahama had promised to scrap several taxes described as “nuisance taxes” in their manifesto before the 2024 general elections.

Hence, many were keenly waiting on Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson’s speech today as he entered the chamber to deliver the budget for this year.

Among the taxes expected to be scrapped were the controversial betting tax, Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy), and COVID-19 levies.

In the end, the finance minister announced that all these taxes are set to be abolished by the government.

He declared:

Mr. Speaker, we will abolish the 10% withholding tax on winnings from lottery, otherwise known as the “Betting Tax”; we will abolish the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy) of 1%; we will abolish the Emission Levy on industries and vehicles; we will abolish the VAT on motor vehicle insurance policy; and we will abolish the 1.5% withholding tax on winning of unprocessed gold by small-scale miners.

READ ALSO: 2025 Budget: Government finally cancels controversial betting tax

While making this pronouncement, a voice exclaimed from the background with excitement amid all the usual “yeah, yeah,” chants.

One person shouted, “NPP 2038, NPP 2028” as a dig to the opposition National Patriotic Party (NPP), basically trying to say they would be in opposition until that time.

Finance Minister explains how government will make up for scrapped taxes

According to Forson, the removal of these taxes will ease the burden on households and improve their disposable incomes. In addition, it will support business growth and improve tax compliance.

Meanwhile, the government is reducing the current tax refund ceiling by 2 percentage points from 6% to 4% of Total Revenue as defined in Section 69 of the Revenue Administration Act, 2016 (Act 915). 147. This will save GH¢3.8 billion.

READ ALSO: 2025 Budget: Here are all the 6 nuisance taxes the Mahama government has abolished

Forson shared that this amount is enough to close the revenue shortfall from the removal of the E-Levy amounting to GH¢1.9 billion and the Betting Tax of GH¢180 million.

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