Charles Nii Armah Mensah, known in Showbiz as Shatta Wale, has lamented the stress the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has mounted on him to settle some tax debt that, according to him, they claim he owes. The sensational artist and businessman expressed his disappointment in the government for imposing such an unfair tax on artists, including him. Shatta Wale highlighted how the government has failed to support artists and is always interested in extorting huge amounts as tax from the citizens.
According to Shatta Wale on GTV’s Breakfast Show with Kafui Dey, GRA said the tax had accumulated since his time as being referred to as Bandana, but now he is called Shatta Wale. He believes his Shaxi business is also a motivation for the GRA to chase him of owing about GH¢9 billion tax
He complained that there are no measures put in place to support artists and their businesses, but the government is more interested in imposing huge taxes on them.
“I have been paying for my Google Maps service for over three years, I pay $8,000, $7,000, and nobody is paying attention to it but ever since they heard that Shaxi is in business, GRA and co. have been chasing me with tax. Where were they when I was struggling? I have been paying taxes for music that I had not even made money from. GRA is taxing me for my music, they say I owe about GH¢9 billion, backdated to the Bandana era where I didn’t even make money from my music,” he lamented.
Shatta Wale stated that if there were good royalty systems for artists, paying such huge taxes would not become a problem, but it has now become a huge burden for artists.
“With all these things happening, when I talk about the royalty system, nobody supports me, and it’s sad. Sometimes I feel like we are too scared to fight the problem, and that is why I am vocal. I keep saying that if the government had done certain things for musicians, we would have been paying tax,” he said.
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