New Fiscal Regime For Mining Sector Soon – Vice President Bawumia
Government will soon introduce a new fiscal regime for the mining
sector to ensure Ghana derives maximum benefit from the extraction of
her mineral resources, the Vice President of the Republic has revealed.
The paradigm shift in the thinking behind the utilisation of Ghana’s
mineral resources would seek to ensure value addition to the minerals
mined in Ghana instead of the current system of raw exports, and would
also seek to leverage on such minerals to secure holistic national
development.
Such thinking has already began to reflect in the Nana Akufo-Addo
government’s approach to development with the recent passage by
Parliament of a Master Project Facility Agreement that seeks to leverage
a fraction of our bauxite deposits in a barter arrangement for
infrastructure development worth $2 billion after the Vice President’s
business visit to the People’s Republic of China in June last year.
Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia gave an insight into the
Akufo-Addo government’s approach to national development when he
addressed the chiefs and people of the Essikado Traditional Area in the
Western region at the climax of this year’s Kuntum Festival on Saturday
4th August, 2018.
“We have not really benefited from the extraction of our natural
resources, and it is for this reason that we need especially in the area
of our minerals, to bring a new paradigm, a new thinking into how as a
country we can benefit more from our mineral resources,” the Vice
President noted.
“There are many mines that are operating and for years, they tell us
they have not made any profit so they cannot pay any dividend to
government. But they keep mining and mining. How can you as a business
continue to be in existence for so long and claim you are not making
profit and so you cannot pay. There are some mines that are paying, but
many are not paying sufficiently, relative to how much they are taking
out of our country.”
Vice President Bawumia indicated that a new fiscal regime similar to
the one prevailing in the oil sector would soon be introduced in the
mining sector.
“We have a regime that we are implementing for the oil sector, and we
want to implement the same regime for the mining sector. So when you
take your gold out of the soil, if you take a 1000 tonnes, you will have
to pay us our share out of that. We will not wait for you to go and say
you have not made any profit out of the 1000 so you will not pay us
anything. You will have to pay us something commensurate to what you
have taken out.”
The Vice President assured the investor community that while
Government welcomes foreign direct investment, such investment would
have to be a partnership that was beneficial to all parties.
“We want foreign investment, there is no doubt about that. Our
lawyers will say we have given them an invitation to treat. But that
invitation to treat must not be an invitation to cheat. We want
partnerships, and that is why we want a new regime in the mining sector,
so that everyone will pay their share.”
This new thinking, the Vice President emphasised, was the guiding
principle behind the decision to leverage a fraction of Ghana’s vast
bauxite deposits to build an integrated bauxite and aluminium industry.
“We have decided that we are not going to allow what has happened to
gold and manganese to happen with bauxite. Parliament just passed the
Ghana Integrated Bauxite Authority Bill. We are forming this
corporation, and will be forming partnerships with anybody who comes, a
joint venture, to build an integrated bauxite and aluminium industry.
“We don’t want the raw bauxite being taken out of Ghana anymore. We
will build a refinery here to refine the bauxite to alumina, take it to
VALCO, and get aluminium and you will see the massive increase in value.
This is going to be transformational,” the Vice President stated.
Vice President Bawumia commended the Omanhene of Essikado Traditional
Area, Nana Kwabena Nketsiah V for his “continuous drive and
contribution towards a better Ghanaian society for all”.
“Nana is indeed a true chip off the old block” Dr Bawumia declared,
and called for the sustenance of the peace and unity enjoyed by the
people of Essikado and the nation as a whole.
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