Mr Paul Kofi Nti, the Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), has taken a two-day tour to the operational sites of some mining giants in the Western Region to acquaint himself with their operations and tax compliance.
Members of the team, including the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Mr Suleman Koney, and journalists, first stopped over at the Africa Mining Services, the largest contract mining company in the Region.
At the mines, Ms Maureen Balibi-Boye, the Tax Manager, expressed her frustrations with the delay of checklist from the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, which always came with additional cost.
She also complained about duty issues on exemptions, import through the borders and associated high cost of doing businesses, which affected profit margins and taxes.
Reacting to the concerns, Mr Nti said: “Henceforth, items on mining list would be subjected to annual review… We want to see industries stay in business for a long period”.
“All we want is transparency, clarity and truthfulness in the business relationship…We are looking at putting the mining list in draft and chapters for easy reference, meanwhile, exemptions to companies and other support services are not transferable”.
The team also engaged the Ghana Manganese Company where the General Manager, Mr Joseph Ampong, explained that the company had put in place interventions to enable it to stay in business.
He said the company, which had existed for 100 years, was looking at plant expansion, rail works to facilitate haulage and increase its exploration works to enable it to produce more.
Mr Ampong described 2018 as a difficult fiscal year due to lots of outstanding activities, which must be carried out to compensate for the needed plan of expansion and growth and expressed the hope that business would pick up by 2019.
Mr Nti lauded the compliance level of the company as shown in their Audit Report and prayed that the change in management could make them more compliant.
At Goldfields Tarkwa Mines, Mr Stephen Osei Bempah, the General Manager, said the Mine had nine more years of active mining whilst the remaining six years would be concentrated on stockpiles.
He said the Mine opted for contract mining to save cost and invest more in exploration to see if the mining life could be increased beyond the nine years.
“Our aim is to undergo aggressive exploration to expand the Mine to about 2030,” he said.
The team ended the tour at Karl Tyre where rethreading and repairs were carried out on giant tyres used by mining companies.
The Commissioner-General said entrenching best practices in the tax administration was important in the quest for economic growth and “that is why I have come to know the reality on the ground …we want to walk to the tax payer”.
