Economist Professor Patrick Asuming has urged the government to reconsider its plans to abolish the Betting Tax, stressing its dual role as a regulatory mechanism and a revenue-generating tool.
His remarks follow President John Dramani Mahama’s 2024 campaign promise to eliminate so-called “nuisance taxes,” including the Betting Tax, the COVID-19 Levy, and the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-levy).
Speaking on Eyewitness News on Thursday, January 9, 2024, Professor Asuming expressed concerns about the potential consequences of removing the Betting Tax.
He argued that taxation should go beyond generating revenue, serving also to influence societal behaviours and support local industries. With betting gaining significant traction among the youth, Professor Asuming highlighted the importance of maintaining a regulatory framework to manage its societal impacts.
“I think in terms of specific proposals, they have proposed to remove 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 and given how much of a nuisance the e-levy has been, removing them wouldn’t be too much of an issue trying to find ways to combat them.
“But having said that I don’t think that we should be removing the betting tax. I know the young people in this country will not be happy to hear me say that.
“One of the problems we have in this country is we have 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 some behaviour. And I think the rate at which betting is taking hold of our youth requires some actions. So, I support the removal of the betting tax,” he stated.
However, Dr. Asuming welcomed the president’s pledge to rationalize the tax system and called for a review of tax exemptions granted to profitable entities.
He argued that rolling back such exemptions could generate significantly more revenue than the three taxes under consideration for removal.
“But having said that even if they decided to roll back some of the interventions, it was good to hear the president say that they are going to rationalize the tax system. I hope that it includes removing a lot of exceptions given to profitable entities that we don’t do cross-benefit analysis to understand what they are giving us. If we can roll back some of the exemptions, it will give us in multiple what these three taxes are given us,” he added.
