The New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) presidential candidate Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has reiterated his commitment to eliminate the controversial E-Levy and the betting tax if he secures victory in the 2024 general elections.
Ironically the taxes he said he will withdraw or reform were implemented by the NPP government he is serving as Vice President.
He assured that his government would implement broad tax reforms designed to ease the financial burden on Ghanaians, including offering tax amnesty for unpaid taxes from previous years and providing waivers for interest and penalties on unfiled taxes.
Speaking at the party’s manifesto launch in Takoradi on Sunday, August 18, Dr. Bawumia presented a vision to elevate Ghana into a leading digital economy.
He emphasized that his goal would be realized through targeted policies, attractive incentives, and strategic investments. “We will accelerate Ghana’s growth into a world-class digital economy and make Ghana the digital hub of Africa. We will do this through policies, competitive incentives and investments. We will invest in developing local talent and tech start-ups. Abolish E-Levy.”
He also said he will “Implement wide-ranging tax reforms-offer a one-time tax amnesty to all Ghanaians and corporate entities through Tax amnesty from the payment of taxes from the previous years. The waiving of interest and penalties for failures to file taxes in previous years. This will enable everyone to start their tax journey afresh.”
Dr. Bawumia added that the tax amnesty will give business an opportunity to start afresh “It will ‘wipe the slate clean’ for all taxpayers in Ghana – reform the Value Added Tax regime by merging all levies into a single line-item levy, and treat the merged levy as part of input and output VAT, to eliminate the cascading effect in the current regime – reduce Withholding Tax (WHT) for small-scale gold exports to 1% to discourage smuggling – abolish the Betting Tax.”
