The Deputy Youth Organizer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Osman Ayariga, has lashed out at the government’s 10% tax on bet and lottery winnings, calling it a lazy revenue mobilization approach that is often a signature of incompetent governments.
Appearing on the August 19 edition of The Big Issue on Citi FM and Citi TV, the Deputy Youth Organizer also said the tax is unfair and wicked to the suffering Ghanaian youth who largely depend on betting for survival.
He argued that the tax is unfair because the taxing regime in the country is biased towards Ghanaians yet very friendly to foreign businesses 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 further criticized the concern of addiction raised by largely government appointees, saying there is no other person or body addicted to social cankers than the NPP government.
“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.”
Source: citinewsroom.com
