Ghana abolishes the 1% COVID-19 Health Recovery Levy from 1 January 2026

What changed in detail

The Office of the President announced that President John Dramani Mahama assented to the COVID-19 Health Recovery Levy Repeal Act 2025 on Wednesday, 10 December 2025. The Act abolishes the 1% COVID-19 Health Recovery Levy, which was introduced in 2021 and charged alongside VAT on supplies of goods and services.

In its notice to VAT-registered taxpayers on the Value Added Tax Act, 2025 (Act 1151) reforms, the Ghana Revenue Authority lists “The COVID-19 Health Recovery Levy has been abolished” among the changes. It states that implementation of the VAT Act is effective 1 January 2026. From that date the levy no longer applies.

The same notice confirms the rest of the reform package: VAT stays at 15%, the NHIL and GETFund levies stay at 2.5% each and are recoupled with VAT as deductible input tax, and the VAT Flat Rate Scheme is abolished.

What it means

The repeal took effect on 1 January 2026 and is still the position in November 2026. Businesses should have dropped the 1% line from invoices, price lists and POS or ERP tax codes for supplies made from that date. Supplies made before it were still subject to the levy.

The repeal came together with the recoupling of NHIL and GETFund. The total charge on a standard-rated supply is now 20% of the same base (15% VAT + 2.5% + 2.5%), where before the levies were added first and VAT was charged on top. See the Act 1151 reform record for the full computation change.