Betting tax should be increased to 50% - Professor Adjei

Professor Stephen Adei, a prominent economist, is calling for a substantial increase in Ghana's 10% betting tax, suggesting it should be raised to 50%.

He argues that betting is a destructive habit that needs to be strongly discouraged, and the increase in tax would be a step towards curbing its prevalence.

This comes in contrast to a promise made by President-elect John Dramani Mahama, who has vowed to scrap several taxes within his first 100 days in office. Among the taxes Mr Mahama intends to remove are the e-levy, COVID levy, the 10% betting tax, emissions levy, and import duties on vehicles and equipment used for industrial and agricultural purposes.

Professor Adei’s proposal stands as a firm challenge to the incoming administration’s tax-relief plans, as he believes higher taxes on betting would help combat its negative societal impact.

Speaking in an interview, the former Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) stated that “As a father, as a Christian leader we call it sin tax, sin taxes must be higher, not reduced. everywhere in the world, cigarette taxes, alcoholic taxes betting taxes, I will want them to be 50%. Because I don’t want my grandchildren to be betting, betting is one of the disastrous habits that we should discourage.”

He also added that, “There should be a total tax review. There are too many taxes. For example, I imported something and I saw about 21 taxes on our car import, that is ridiculous. So we need a total look at the taxes but in looking at it, look at ones which are easier to collect, which is more widespread so that the tax base will be very narrow.

“There are only about one million income taxpayers in Ghana out of 33 million people of which half are adults. That is why the e-levy, if it can be reduced, should be kept, then you must go for property taxes because you cannot put your house in your pocket. You must cut funding for local government, for example in Accra they should be able to collect property rates’’.

“They must carefully consider their promises, such as the taxes he is going to waive. I would not have even promised to remove e-levy because one of the very difficult things to do in a country like ours is getting people to comply with tax payments.

“In tax administration, if it costs more to collect money than what you are going to get, you better forget it. As for E-levy, I would rather want to reduce some other taxes and keep e-levy. Because you must reduce taxes which are difficult to collect and keep ones which are easier.”

He also added “At this point, they have no option but to remove e-levy because they made a promise but in recrafting it they must find a way of reducing the multiplicity of the taxes.”

Professor Stephen Adei also highlighted that one of the key challenges faced by President Akufo-Addo during his tenure was his failure to manage expectations effectively.

He explained that managing expectations is crucial in the leadership of both organisations and nations.

“I think that one of the downfalls of Akufo-Addo was his inability to manage expectations because what he promised that he would do he talked about Ghana getting to a point where we don’t need aid, now we are begging for money. So, expectation management is very important in running your home, your organisation, and running a country. So the first thing I will advise [John Mahama] is to manage expectations.”

This, he stated, should serve as a cautionary lesson to President-elect John Dramani Mahama, urging him to carefully manage the expectations of Ghanaians as he takes office.

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