Mid-Year Review: 'Gov't collected more taxes in 2025 despite abolishing e-levy, others' — Ato Forson
The Minister for Finance, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, has stated that the abolition of the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy), betting tax, COVID-19 health recovery levy, and others did not reduce government revenue but rather increased tax collections in 2025.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration abolished a number of taxes in 2025 which it had consistently described as nuisance taxes introduced by the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.
Presenting the 2026 Mid-Year Budget Review in Parliament on Thursday, July 23, Dr Ato Forson said the government's tax performance demonstrated that efficient revenue mobilisation and stronger compliance could generate more revenue without imposing additional taxes on citizens.
"Government collected more taxes in 2025, even after abolishing the nuisance taxes, including the E-Levy. The lesson here is simple: better policy, stronger compliance, and smarter administration will always deliver more sustainable revenue than higher taxes," he said.
The Finance Minister said the government's macroeconomic reforms had also been supported by the establishment of the Ghana Gold Board, which he said had helped curb gold smuggling, formalise the gold trade and improve foreign exchange inflows.
According to him, the intervention generated an additional US$15 billion in foreign exchange from gold, strengthening Ghana's reserves and supporting exchange rate stability.
"This was not simply a gold policy. This was a macroeconomic stabilization policy designed to strengthen the cedi, build external buffers, and restore confidence in the Ghanaian economy," the Minister noted.
Dr Ato Forson further disclosed that the government is implementing the Ghana Accelerated National Reserve Accumulation Policy (GANRAP) to increase the country's international reserves to the equivalent of 15 months of import cover by the end of 2028.
He added that the government had also reached an agreement with large-scale mining companies to purchase 30 percent of their annual gold production for refining by local refineries as part of efforts to strengthen domestic value addition and enhance external resilience.