Accra, Dec. 1, - Government has
successfully abolished the 7.5 per cent tax on the 20 per cent commission being
charged lotto operators under the National Lottery Authority (NLA).
Mr Kofi Osei Ameyaw, the
Director-General of the NLA, made this known on Thursday in Accra when the
Authority interacted with Lotto Marketing Companies (LMCs).
He said in addition to the 7.5
per cent tax on the commission, the five per cent withholding tax on lotto wins
had also been abolished.
Mr Ameyaw, upon assumption of
office in March this year, pledged to get government to remove the aforesaid
taxes in order to create a level playing field for lotto stakers in the
country.
He said the taxes were abolished
in the 2018 ‘Adwuma’ Budget presented to Parliament recently by the Finance
Minister, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta.
Mr Ameyaw said removing the taxes
became unnecessary after the Authority realised that many of its operators were
moving to the camp of illegal lottery operators known as banker-to-banker
because of the imposition of huge taxes.
The illegal lottery operators, he
said; “previously had the advantage of a tax free regime and so those who were
selling lotteries for the country, having to bear the brunt of 7.5 per cent
were shifting to the illegal activities.”
He said because of the taxes,
many of the lotto stakers were moving into the illegal business, which reduced
the number of NLA lotto stakers.
“Similarly, those who were afraid
of paying taxes on their wins and, for that matter, headed towards the illegal
lottery business where they do not pay any withholding tax on the wins are now
free to come and stake with the Government, which means we have opened the
system to all those who were doing business undercover or ‘under the table’ to
come out openly and do business with government and NLA,” he said.
“The number of lottery stakers
for NLA has dwindled because they don’t want to pay any taxes so by removing
them, it is going to bring more people and don’t forget that when they don’t
win all the revenue comes to government,” Mr Ameyaw said.
He said: “So what we need to
measure is the amount of revenue that we will collect when they don’t win
compared to money that is going to illegal operations, which doesn’t come to
government.”
Mr Frimpong, addressing the media
on the sidelines of the meeting, thanked President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
for abolishing the taxes, which he said were only causing undue hardship for
operators in the sector.
“The Government has proved that
it is a listening government,” said Mr Frimpong.
GNA
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