By Julian Owusu Abedi
The Chamber of Bullion Traders Ghana(CBTG) wishes to express its appreciation to the government for reducing the 3% withholding tax to 1.5% on unprocessed gold. The issue had been a long dragging battle between the authorities and the Small Scale Miners. It trickled down to gold exporters who were compelled to bear the brunt.
In an interview with the CEO of the CBTG Mr. Daniel Krampahto elicit his views on the budget statement as regards the 1.5% withholding tax, the CEO stated that it has been long time coming so the Chamber appreciates the decision of government having to some extent listened to the industry
players.
He said, “the Chamber had actually proposed a 1% withholding tax because we as a Chamber and gold exporters, the business or issues of the Small Scale Miners directly or indirectly affect our business but the
Chamber does not have any qualms with the Small Scale Miners coming out to accept the government’s proposal of 1.5% for that to be captured in the budget. “We are fine with that”
Mr. Krampah opined that “because of the 3% withholding tax, some individuals who are not members of the Chamber rather smuggled their gold without paying a dime to government and this affected revenue
mobilization.
He revealed that the Chamber came out with a revenue mobilization plan last year which shot revenue to an appreciable point but still the illicit deals by smugglers thwarted the Chamber’s efforts.
There were dwindling trade volumes on the part of licensed export last year because they could not get their supplies regularly. The reduction of the 3% Withholding Tax should be an incentive for all in the industry
to coerce those smuggling to give that habit up. The reduction is welcomed”.
He said, “for example, the figures from January to end of year 2021 which amounted to some Gh¢30,841,591 clearly show a dip in the trends compared to over GHC200,000,000 for mid-May to December in the year 2020 when the tax was first implemented. This clearly indicated that we were gradually losing
- Now, we hope that with this reduction, licensed dealers will be encouraged to go through the right channels in order to increase the volumes and its corresponding fiscals.”
The Chairman of the CBTG also seized the opportunity to thank all the stakeholders including the GRA, PMMC, Minerals Commission and the sector Ministry for making this tax cut a reality. The Minister for Lands and Natural Resource, Hon. Samuel Abu Jinapor, playing a sterling role in the process cannot be let to go without a special mention.
