Finance Minister assures of scrapping betting, tax, E-Levy and others in 2025 Budget 

The Minister of Finance, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, has stated that despite the government's commitment to increase non-oil tax revenue by 0.6 percentage points of GDP, it has planned the removal of what it terms "nuisance taxes" in line with the National Democratic Congress (NDC) manifesto.

Dr Forson made these remarks during his presentation of the 2025 Budget Statement at Parliament House in Accra on Tuesday, March 11, 2025.

He mentioned that the removal of these taxes will ease the burden on households and improve their disposable
incomes as well as support business growth and improve tax compliance.

The taxes set to be abolished include the 10 per cent withholding tax on lottery winnings, commonly known as the “Betting Tax”; the 1 per cent Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy); and the Emission Levy on industries and vehicles.

Additionally, the VAT on motor vehicle insurance policies and the 1.5% withholding tax on unprocessed gold winnings by small-scale miners will also be removed.

"Mr. Speaker: i) we will abolish the 10 per cent withholding tax on winnings from lottery, otherwise known as the “Betting Tax”; ii) we will abolish the Electronic Transfer Levy (ELevy) of 1 per cent; iii) we will abolish the Emission Levy on industries and vehicles; iv) we will abolish the VAT on motor vehicle insurance policy; and v) we will abolish the 1.5 per cent withholding tax on winning of unprocessed gold by small-scale miners," he stated.

Dr Forson further revealed that the Tax Refund Account has been abused in recent years. 

He said a study on the use of the tax refunds in the last eight years revealed that GHS29.11 billion had accrued to the tax refund account with only 12.5 billion, representing 43 per cent of the total accrued amount is used for tax refund purposes. 

"The study also revealed that GHS16.6 billion, representing 57 per cent of the total amount accumulated in the tax refund account was misapplied, which is a total violation of the Revenue Administration Act, 2016 (Act 915) and the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921)," he said.

"Instructively, there were virtually no tax refund arrears over the period. Therefore, we are reducing the current tax refund ceiling by 2 percentage points from 6 per cent to 4 per cent of Total Revenue as defined in Section 69 of the Revenue Administration Act, 2016 (Act 915)," he added.