Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Youth Authority (NYA) Pius Hadzide has said that beyond raising much-needed revenue for Government expenditure, the recently introduced 10% tax on all bet winnings is meant to discourage the youth from indulging in betting, a venture known to be detrimental to the productivity of the youth
Defending the tax as an effective tool for curbing the rising addiction of the youth to gambling, Mr Hadzide argued on Citi TV’s The Point of View programme Monday, August 21, that the tax is a fiscal measure aimed at protecting the youth from the devastating effects betting has on those who engage in the long term.
He noted that betting is destroying cherished Ghanaian values such as hard work in decent labour and honesty, and engendering a get-rich-quick mentality about the youth. The punitive tax is there meant to discourage the youth from betting.
“We have been concerned about the increasing incidences of gambling that are affecting even the education of children. Our assessment is that when you go to many of these betting sites, you see young people in uniforms betting. We have developed the culture that the Ghanaian is known as one who is hardworking, one who is committed to decent work and honest work. Those are our values. This idea of young people attempting to get rich quickly is a dangerous path to chart for any country in the long term,” he stated.
He praised the Akufo-Addo administration for listening to advocates, like the NYA, and taking bold steps to make gambling less attractive to the youth.
“So we have always advocated that the government should take steps to discourage gambling. We were looking at both legislative and fiscal measures, such as tax measures, to discourage and disincentivize people from indulging in excessive betting, especially now that our own research has indicated that the vast majority of the youth in our country are drifting into that area. In our view, it is a ticking time bomb. So we applaud the government because we have brought up this matter before past and present officers of state, and we are excited that the government is finally listening to us and implementing measures to disincentivize gambling,” he added.
The introduction of the 10% tax on all bet winnings has been met with outrage from the betting public. The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has described it as a lazy tax that is meant to burden the unemployed who are relying on it to survive
Source: MyNewsGh.com
