NLA to waive taxes on lotto wins

Director-General of National Lottery Authority (NLA), Mr Kofi Osei-Ameyaw, has assured Lotto Marketing Companies (LMCs) that taxes on lotto wins would soon be waived.

He also assured them that payments for lotto wins would, in future, be made at Point of Sales (PoS) with the introduction of e-kiosks to be provided by the NLA.

“The Authority has sent proposals to the ministry of finance for the scrapping of taxes paid by lotto agents to attract more operators into the mainstream operations,” Mr. Osei-Ameyaw disclosed at a meeting with LMCs in Accra yesterday.

NLA, he further revealed, will introduce about 30,000 modernised and innovative e-kiosks nationwide by November this year to provide value-added services in the lotto business.

“These modernised sales points will allow agents to provide services like mobile money, and receive taxes on behalf of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA),” he added.

According to Mr. Osei-Ameyaw, his outfit was considering increasing the commission earned by operators from the current 20 to 25% or more.

“There are also plans by the NLA to initiate and implement a welfare package for all its agents once the necessary strategies are put in place,” he pointed out.

He said NLA was also putting in place measures to telecast live lotto draws as was done years ago to ensure that operators were keenly involved in the draw.

Meanwhile, the LMCs have raised some concerns on the issue of payments for wins.

An LMC executive of the Greater Accra Region, Mr Nii Adjiri, said the NLA should stop ‘illegal operators’ from operating Banker-to-Banker until they were fully licenced.

He said, some illegal operators monitor the closing time of licenced lotto agents and draw times and take an opportunity to do illegal business within that period.

The NLA, he went on to add, contributes about GH¢35 million annually to the Consolidated Fund, and gave the assurance that it was aiming to increase it to a 100 cedis annually.