Sammi Awuku, former Director-General of the National Lottery Authority (NLA), dismissed the government’s claim of abolishing the 10% tax on lottery winnings, stating it was never implemented.
He argued the tax was never enforced due to concerns about its impact on the lottery sector and players.
“After listening to today’s budget presentation, I couldn’t help but notice a rather misleading claim that the government has abolished the 10% lottery tax on winnings,” Awuku stated.
Adding that, “But let’s be honest: how do you abolish a tax that was never implemented?”
Awuku also clarified the distinction between lottery and betting, stressing that the National Lottery Authority operates under the Ministry of Finance, while betting is regulated by the Gaming Commission under the Ministry of the Interior. He suggested that conflating the two was a deliberate political maneuver.
“Hon. Amin Adam won’t be wrong to say the betting tax was never collected anyway since the Finance Minister also referred to the 10% on lottery wins as ‘betting tax.’ If that’s what the Finance Minister calls betting tax, then it was never implemented even though it was passed in 2023." He said
