Government lost an estimated $90 million in 2011/2012 as a result of mining stability agreements and 387 to 1168 million dollars from non-optimization of royalty receipts from 1990 to 2007.
From 2010 to 2013, the country’s average share of the total value for gold was seven percent with government receiving $1.7 billion in taxes. Total value of gold production in 2014 exceeded $23 billion.
The above was revealed at the launch of a report titled ‘Golden Days for Newmont’ by the Head of Policy Unit, Africa centre for Energy Policy, ACEP Mr. Ishmael Ackah in Accra.
According to Extractive industries Transparency initiative, Newmont has been enjoying ‘Golden Days’ because Ghana has failed to capture adequate and fair share of mineral value over the years.
Mr. Ackah said from 2003 to 2012, Newmont paid less than $500 million ax to government despite reporting annual revenues of $931 million in 2012.
Mr. Ackah warned that the country’s domestic revenue is expected to be 8.1 per cent lower than 2014 which could lead to cuts in social service.
The ACEP commended government for re-negotiating the Newmont contract but asked the Executive to introduce al law on resource rent tax to capture a share of excessive profits.
The Centre also called for effective transparency and accountability to track share of royalties that goes to traditional authorities as well as effective tax administration to detect and public transfer pricing and other illegal corporate practices.
Source: the Insight
