Taxes competing with production budget, killing us – Theatre consultant to government

Francis Tetteh Nutakor is “afraid, one day, producers will stop producing because they feel government is taking too much from us and we see so little from them”.

Nutakor spoke to Prince Benjamin (PB) on the Class Morning Show’s entertainment block on Class 91.3 FM, Thursday, December 21, 2023.

“The taxes are killing us,” he bemoaned.

A highly sought-after theatre producer and director, he said, despite the huge taxes paid, the players in theatre see no action from government “in terms of infrastructural development, capacity building,” etc.

“We don’t know it all but if the government is taking 21 per cent [in taxes from us] and the next week you come to the theatre and there is some improvement in the AC condition, chairs, we’d then know that our taxes are being used for our sector. But we don’t see that,” Nutakor said.


Meanwhile, the officials of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) “are always at the gate,” he noted.

He said GRA officials usually mix up with ticket vendors and patrons at the gate of production venues.

Nutakor said: “Sometimes, they come late and they go and count the people inside. There are a 1000 people in the venue and your tickets are selling at 150.

“They do the 21 per cent of the 150, and then they ask you to come and pay. And it’s huge money.

“The taxes are more expensive than the auditorium, the light, the set and, sometimes, the payment for the crew combined.

“So you’re paying for auditorium, you’re paying for light, you’re paying for sound, you’re paying for security. When you combine all these things, the tax you’re paying is even more than that.

“I’m telling you. You can pay taxes, probably 30,000 or 40,000, and you ask yourself: ‘What’s the point of all this?’”

Francis T. Nutakor’s latest work is Romanus Incomplete V, starring actor and comic Foster Romanus.