Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has dismissed claims that the erstwhile NPP government did not implement the 10% withholding tax on betting winnings.

On Tuesday, Dr. Forson named the 10% withholding tax among a list of taxes to be abolished by government in the 2025 budget statement.

Shortly after the budget reading, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adams, a former minister of finance in the erstwhile NPP government, claimed that the betting tax was not implemented.

“Betting tax that they said they have abolished, we never collected Betting Tax. So to come and tell Ghanaians that you have abolished something that you have not implemented, is to deceive the people of Ghana.”

In a swift response, the Dr. Ato Forson who appeared on PM Express on the JoyNews channel, debunked those claims on Tuesday night.

''I don't think he is on top of that matter because my checks reveal that it was implemented in the second half of 2024. My checks also reveal that year to date, government of Ghana has collected GH₵ 80 million from the betting tax. So I don't know what he is talking about. It is not the fact,'' he concluded.

In September 2023, Edward Gyambra of the Domestic Tax Revenue Division of the GRA said the authority recorded GH₵ 15 million as monthly betting taxes, and projected that by the end of the football season, the amount could appreciate to GH₵ 60 million.

''During the first month of implementation, we averaged GH¢20 million for the GGR. As for the withholding tax, we’ve just started the betting season, but during the lean season, we averaged GH¢15 million. We anticipate this to quadruple by May,” he concluded.

By September 2024, the GRA projected to receive GH₵ 1.2 billion ($78.4 million) in betting taxes.