Finance Minister, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, has rubbished the claim by his predescessor, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, that the NPP government never collected the betting tax.
Speaking in an interview on Tuesday night, after the NPP minority claimed in a post-budged presentation press conference that they never implemented the betting tax, the current Finance Minister said Dr Amin was deceiving Ghanaians.
According to him, evidence available to the current government indicates that the betting tax was implemented and that the NPP even acknowledged raising Ghc 80m from it, so he doesn’t know what the former minister is talking about.
“…My checks revealed that it was implemented in the second half of 2024. And my checks also reveal that year-to-date, the government of Ghana has collected over GH¢80 million from betting tax, so I don’t know what he’s talking about,” Ato Forson said.
The clapback comes after Dr Mohammed, leading the minority’s response to Tuesday’s budget reading, denied that the NPP ever implemented the betting tax.
According to him, the government is deceiving the public by claiming they have abolished the tax, noting that the NDC cannot abolish a tax that never existed.
The claim blew up on social media, with many firing back at the NPP for lying as the tax had been implemented last year and even the party’s flagbearer, Dr Bawumia, had pledged to scrap it if elected.