Director of Communications for the NPP, Richard Ahiagbah
The Director of Communications for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Richard Ahiagbah, has said that his party had planned to abolish the betting tax if they emerged victorious in the 2024 general elections.
According to him, NPP flagbearer Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia prioritized scrapping the betting tax in response to the concerns of football fans involved in betting.
“We would have removed this tax if we had won the elections,” he said on Joy News.
He further called on the Minister of Finance, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, to clarify how he addressed the removal of the betting tax amid the confusion.
“If the minister inadvertently confused the two in his statement, let that be clarified. We are not arguing about anything else,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ahiagbah applauded the decision to abolish the betting tax, often termed a nuisance, a campaign promise made by the National Democratic Congress (NDC), led by President John Dramani Mahama.
He said, “We wanted to remove it, and we support them (NDC) in removing it. There’s no issue about that.”
Background
During the presentation of the 2025 Budget Statement and Economic Policy on March 11, 2025, Minister of Finance, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, announced that the 10% withholding tax on bet winnings would be cancelled upon parliamentary approval.
Following this, Dr. Amin Adam addressed the media in Parliament, accusing the government of deceiving Ghanaians by abolishing something that was never implemented.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, the betting tax that they said they had abolished, we never collected. 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.
Meanwhile, watch as football fans slam NPP over misleading betting tax comments
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