Former Minister of Finance, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, has clarified his “NPP did not implement Betting Tax” statement made on Tuesday, March 11, 2025.
The former minister is being heavily criticised by a section of the public for the statement, which he made while reacting to an announcement by the current Minister of Finance, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, to the effect that the John Dramani Mahama government would be cancelling the Betting Tax.
Speaking at a press conference in Accra on Thursday, March 13, 2025, Dr Amin Adam explained that he said the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, led by former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, never implemented the tax because of how Dr Ato Forson described it.
He said that the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), in their manifesto for the 2024 Election, promised to cancel taxes on “bet winnings,” but the finance minister mentioned “Betting Tax” in his announcement, which to him was a different thing.
He added that the “Betting Tax” introduced by the Akufo-Addo government was never implemented.
“The NDC, in its manifesto, promised to scrap a 10% levy on Bet winnings. That's what they said in the manifesto — 10% levy on bet winnings. That's what they want to abolish. And that can be called a Betting Tax. But it is different from taxes on winnings from other forms of lottery games of chance, such as staking lotto, same as what they are promising to abolish.
“And so, if I see in the statement by the minister that he will abolish (sic) on lotteries and call that Betting Tax, then it sounds reasonable for me to think that he's equating Betting Tax, which they promise to abolish, to taxes on winnings from other lotteries or other games of chance,” he said.
He added, “And I know that the winnings from lotto, for example, the tax on that was not implemented, and I know that for sure because, as finance minister, I held several meetings on how to implement it, following a petition from the National Lotteries Authority… So, I know for a fact that it wasn't implemented.”
Dr Amin Adam indicated that he was only taking advantage of the mistake made by finance minister Dr Ato Forson in equating the Bet Tax the NDC promised to the Betting Tax.
He, however, admitted that his statement created a wrong impression that the “Bet Tax” was never implemented.
“Reasonably, if you know that Betting Tax is different from other taxes and the minister in the same statement sought to equate the two, then I needed to explain that the Betting Tax he was referring to had actually not been implemented.
“But I can also understand that, listening to myself again, it appears the statement created an impression that I meant Betting Tax as it relates to bet winnings was not implemented. If it was, then that was inaccurate on my part. But what I really wanted to say was that what he called Betting Tax, you know, as in taxes on lotto winnings, was not implemented. And so I think that explains the matter,” he added.
Background
Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, at a press briefing at Parliament on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, claimed that the previous Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government never introduced taxes on bet winnings, popularly called the Betting Tax.
Dr Amin Adam made this claim while reacting to an announcement by his successor, the current Minister of Finance, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, on the cancellation of the Betting Tax and other tax measures introduced by the Akufo-Addo government, including the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy).
The former finance minister laughed at the suggestion that the Betting Tax was going to be cancelled because it was not implemented in the first place.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we never collected the Betting Tax that they said they had abolished. 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,” Dr Amin Adam said.
What Ato Forson said
Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, during the presentation of the 2025 Budget, categorically indicated that the John Dramani Mahama government was going to cancel the implementation of the 10% withholding tax on lottery winnings, including the betting tax.
He said, “We will abolish the 10% withholding tax on winnings from lottery, otherwise known as the ‘Betting Tax’.”
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