The African Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) is advocating the introduction of a resource rent law in the mining sector.
The resource rent law is a legal framework that will allow the country and mining companies to accurately capture financial resources that are amassed from mining operations.
According to ACEP, the law will ensure that the country reaps the right benefits from its mineral resources.
Speaking at the launch of a report on the operations of Newmont Ghana, head of the Policy Unit at ACEP, Dr Ishmael Ackah said Ghana needs the right laws in the mining sector to prevent loss of revenue to foreign mining companies.
“We should have a law on resource rent tax in the mining sector. This will help Ghana capture adequate and fair tax without compromising the ability of the mining company to do long term projects,” he added.
The report titled Golden Days for Newmont also revealed that Ghana lost an estimated 90 million dollars in 2011 and 2012 as a result of mining stability agreements with Newmont paying less than 500 million dollars tax to government despite recording revenues of about 2.5 billion dollars in 3 years (2010, 2011 and 2012).
ACEP however commended government for renegotiating the Newmont contracts in December 2015.
They explained that the report was done on Newmont and not other mining companies because Newmont’s contract with government is available in the public domain for scrutiny.
ACEP further called for effective laws to ensure that revenues collected, disbursed and spent in the sector and done in a transparent manner.
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By: Duke Opoku Mensah/citifmonline.com/Ghana