Scrap VAT on inputs for gold exploration- Ghana Chamber of Mines

Betty 13:55 - 09 November 2015

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The Chamber explained that the practice where investors are made to pay VAT on their initial encounter in the exploration field deters them from investing in exploring the “huge” gold resource of the country.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines Alhaji Suleimanu Koney has asked the government to scrap the 17.5 percent Value Added Tax, VAT on exploration inputs for gold exploration.

Speaking at a press briefing in Takoradi, Mr. Suleimanu explained that the practice where investors are made to pay VAT on their initial encounter in the exploration field deters them from investing in exploring the “huge” gold resource base of the country.

He said “if upfront charges on exploration such as VAT are high, it becomes a huge burden on the investor who in most of the cases is not certain of making a commercial find at the exploration stage.

“In any case, it will help to explore the full potential of the resource base of the country if VAT charges on exploration are waved”. He added.

“It will also do away with the situation where if you don’t make any find, you will go away with your loss coupled with the payments you made as VAT charges.” Suleimanu Koney asserted.

Alhaji Suleimana concluded that “we want the extent of exploration done in this country to go high; we want serious exploration because that is the only way we will be assured of a pipeline of projects into the future”.