Osman Ayariga, Deputy Youth Organizer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has slammed the government’s 10% tax on bet and lottery wins, calling it a sloppy revenue mobilization strategy that is typically a hallmark of ineffective regimes.
The Deputy Youth Organizer also stated on the August 19 episode of The Big Issue on Citi FM and Citi TV that the tax is unjust and cruel to the struggling Ghanaian youth who rely on betting for survival.
He said that the tax is unjust since the government’s taxation policy is skewed against Ghanaians while being highly accommodating to foreign enterprises operating in the country.
“This tax is unfair and very wicked because if a foreign company which is not a betting company is allowed to deduct its losses and pay only on the profit and I, the youth who is trying to make ends meet, who is trying to survive, I am not allowed to also deduct my losses, and you only come in to deduct the percentage from just a one-off win, that is a lazy approach.”
“If it were that everyone is profiled by the GRA and GRA is able to compute and know what each individual makes as profit and loss and is able to deduct from the profit, that will make sense otherwise this 10 percent deduction from people’s winnings is a lazy approach.”
Mr. Ayariga also questioned the addiction concerns posed by many government appointees, claiming that no one or body is more hooked to social cankers than the NPP administration.
“The argument about addiction is laughable. We have so many addictions in this country as far as the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is concerned. We have an addiction to corruption, we have an addiction to lies, we have an addiction to deception, we have an addiction to stealing, and we even have an addiction to people keeping huge sums of money in their rooms. And these are the kinds of addictions we should be talking about.”
