2025 budget: We’ll abolish betting tax, e-levy others – Ato Forson

The Minister for Finance, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, says the government will abolish the betting tax, the Electronic Levy, also known as E-levy.

Presenting the 2025 budget to Parliament on Tuesday, the Minister for Finance explained that the move is to ease the burden on Ghanaians.

“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 (ELevy) of 1%; iii we will abolish the Emission Levy on industries and vehicles; iv 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.”

“Mr. Speaker, 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.

“Mr. Speaker, the Tax Refund Account has been abused in recent years. A study on the use of the tax refunds in the last eight (8) years revealed that GHS29.11 billion had accrued to the tax refund account with only 12.5 billion, representing 43% of the total accrued amount is used for tax refund purposes.”