The Minister of Finance, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, on Thursday laid the Income Tax Amendment Bill, (Act 896) 2025, before Parliament, to abolish the 10% withholding tax on all betting winnings from lottery.
The Bill has been referred to the Finance Committee for consideration and report back to the House.
The Minister, in a brief comment, said the Bill was in fulfilment of the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) manifesto promise to remove the 10% withholding tax on bet winnings, which was imposed by the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) Government, with revenue collection beginning from August 2023.
Aside the bet winnings, the Bill would also remove 1.5% withholding tax on all unprocessed gold from small-scale mining, Dr Forson added.
The issue of tax on bet winnings from lottery generated a lot of controversy following the former Minister of Finance Dr Mohammed Amin Adam’s recent denial, saying that the previous NPP government never implemented the betting tax.
However, in an earlier media engagement organised by the minority caucus on the 2025 Budget, Dr Amin Adam apologised for the error.
The Government said the previous NPP government collected a total of GH¢ 80 million from the betting tax.
In September 2023, Mr Edward Gyambra of the Domestic Tax Revenue Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) said the Authority recorded GH¢15 million as monthly betting tax and projected to collect GH¢60 million.
GNA
