Renowned Ghanaian stand-up comedian, Lekzy De Comic, has expressed his dissatisfaction with the taxes imposed on complimentary tickets by the Ghana Revenue Authority.
According to the comedian, free tickets to events should be exempted from taxation since they serve as a means for entertainment companies to attract potential business partners and sponsors.
Speaking to Original TV’s Akosua Boahemaa in an interview, Lekzy revealed that “GRA has a percentage in every ticket you sell. Now, complementary tickets you wish to share freely with industry people to watch your shows are taxed even though it is [the ticket] free. So even after the show, you’d realize that people attended yet you did not get any profit.”
In his view, the industry needs the government’s support to reach that pedestal and not yet at the level to generate huge revenues for the government to use in the nation’s development.
“We even need the support of the government to get to where we desire to be. As we are not fully established, we should not be treated as a fully established industry,” he pleaded.
“We even wish there was a tax holiday. Say maybe, for the next five years, there’ll be no tax for the meantime till the industry has been established, it has taken shape and form because most of the taxes actually deter investors,” he added.
The comedian, who is known in private life as Emmanuel Nkansah Ansong, however, called on investors to rope in and support their cause as most of the issues they face is due to financial constraints.
“The main challenge in stand-up comedy is financial support. We do not have corporate support compared to musicians and actors. People do not look in our direction [in] that way. But with time [and] gradually, some few people looked our way, recognized our talent, and have decided to help us with their little might. But we want more of that,” he said.
“We wish we could travel across Ghana and other parts of the world and if there was help, we could have done that in a grand style but we do everything alone. Hence how we envisioned it, we do minimal way basically.”
“Comedy plays a pivotal role in a nation’s development. Without comedians imagine how depression will take over the whole place,” he opined.
By: Akua Karle Okyere | Metrotvonline.com | Ghana
