The 3% tax on small-scale gold exports begins soon

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) will soon begin implementing a 3% withholding tax on the export value of all the country's gold exports.

This means that at the time of export, people who buy gold from unlicensed artisbad and small-scale miners must provide proof of payment of the appropriate taxes before the gold can be exported.

This should be implemented from the second quarter of this year. This measure is intended to enable the Authority to collect appropriate taxes on all gold exports, which, according to the GRA, is a problematic area in terms of revenue collection.

In 2016, the Authority imposed a 10% withholding tax on small-scale mining in order to increase domestic revenue mobilization and to bring industry members to pay the appropriate taxes. under the revised 2015 Law on Income Tax (Law 896).

This directive did not work. Subsequently, it was revised downwards to 7%, then 3% after a series of meetings between regulators and operators of the sector.

However, the Authority is still struggling to make small-scale artisbad and artisbad miners pay withholding taxes, despite the downward adjustment of the tax.

Speaking at a seminar hosted by Ghana's Institute of Directors (IoD), GRA's Deputy Policy and Program Commissioner, Nathan Nettey, said that the program is being developed by the government. The application of the Directive at the time of export was important as a number of small-scale miners exported the goods from the country, but have since failed to pay the appropriate taxes and royalties to the State.

"The details of this operation will soon be known so that citizens know what they need to do with regard to the export of gold," Nettey said.

Context

A recent badessment of trade data on gold exports between Ghana and its three main partners, namely India, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Switzerland, revealed that valuable exports of gold more than $ 9 billion was still not recorded.

For example, official data on Ghana's exports of gold to Switzerland amount to just over $ 3 billion. However, Switzerland's gold import figures with Ghana revealed that they had imported more than $ 7 billion worth of gold, more than double the total of Ghana's export earnings. .

In addition, the United Arab Emirates recently recorded $ 7 billion in gold imports from Ghana, but Ghana's official data on its exports to the United Arab Emirates barely showed $ 2 billion.

Disparities in the figures would likely have increased significantly if all export and import data between Ghana and the countries purchasing gold were to be examined.