A report by the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, GHEITI on the mining sector shows that mining companies in the country refused to pay dividend to government in 2016.
According to the Minerals and Mining Laws, every mining lease holder in the country is expected to pay 10 percent of its profit to government which must be collected by the Finance Ministry.
The GHEITI report however revealed that compared to 2015, gold production recorded a 17 percent increase in 2016, while production of bauxite and manganese recorded a 26 and 30 percent increase respectively.
However production of diamond reduced by 0.28 percent.
The value of Gold exported in 2016, also increased from the 3,212 dollars recorded in 2015 to 4,919 million dollars in 2016.
Despite the increase in production and exports of the traditional minerals, none of the mining companies paid dividends to government as stipulated by the Minerals and Mining law.
“The poor payment of dividends to government has been a trend as only 4 out of 22 companies contributed 10 percent of its profit to government in 10 years, from 2005 to 2014. Again in 2015, only two companies, Goldfields and Ghana Manganese Company paid. Last year, government received 13.5 million from only Chirano gold”.
However, companies contribution to GDP in the form of corporate taxes inched by 15 percent, to 409 million cedis after reducing from the 16 percent in 2014.
Meanwhile, the Minerals Commission is seeking the abolishing of taxes on exploration as way to attract more investors to the mining industry.
The Chief Executive Kwasi Addae Antwi Boisiako says the amount investors are asked to pay before prospecting for minerals makes the industry attractive to investors.
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By Nana Oye Ankrah/Citibusinessnews.com/Ghana