2021 Budget: Arts, Entertainment And Hospitality Sectors Get Tax Break

Government has granted tax breaks to companies within the arts, entertainment and hospitality sectors as part of measures to lessen the adverse effects of COVID-19, states interim Finance Minister Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu.

Presenting the 2021 budget statement of government in Parliament on Friday, Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said it is important to provide companies within these sectors the needed tax exemptions to cushion them against the economic effects of the global pandemic.

He said this forms part of government’s broader economic recovery plan to get the Ghanaian economy back to its previous state.

Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, who is also Minister of Parliamentary Affairs said the government is providing “a tax rebate of 30 percent on the income tax due for companies in hotels and restaurants, education, arts and entertainment, and travel and tours for the second, third and fourth quarters of 2021.”

However, the minister assured that the tax exemptions given to these companies will not in any way derail government’s revenue mobilisation for the 2021 fiscal year. He said government has deployed creative revenue mobilisation strategies in the medium-term that will help increase the country’s revenue streams.

“In the medium-term, we will pursue revenue enhancing measures with a focus on deepening our digitalization agenda both on transactions on goods and services as well as on the tax collection machinery as part of measures to broaden the tax base and rope in a lot more eligible tax payers into the tax net. Expenditures will be rationalized through the implementation of tighter expenditure control systems with a more efficient procurement system to ensure value for money. We will also pursue structural reforms in public finance management system to improve efficiency in public service delivery,” he noted.