Renowned economist Professor Patrick Asuming has advised President John Dramani Mahama to maintain the betting tax due to its moral impact.
According to him, it would be prudent for the president to scrap the E-levy and the COVID levy, which are considered nuisance taxes that generate minimal revenue.
The economist justified keeping the betting tax, stating it helps regulate behavior among youth involved in betting and discourages them.
“I think, in terms of specific proposals, they have proposed removing the E-levy, COVID levy, and betting tax. If you look at what we are projected to collect from those three in 2025, it will be just around 5% of the revenue. Given how much of a nuisance the E-levy has been, removing them wouldn’t be too much of an issue. However, I don’t think we should remove the betting tax. I know young people in this country won’t be happy to hear me say that,” he said while speaking in an interview with Citi FM.
Prof. Asuming continued, “One of the problems we have in this country is that we’ve made taxation solely focused on revenue generation, but we forget that we use tax policy to support certain local industries and sectors and to shape behavior. I think the rate at which betting is taking hold of our youth requires some action,” he said.
His comment comes after President Mahama promised to abolish the betting tax if he won the 2024 general elections.
SB/EK
