Over US$700 million accrued to the government as a result of fiscal reforms, says GHEITI
The chairman of the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GHEITI) recent findings by a study group suggest Ghana is significantly benefiting from fiscal reforms
Dr Steve Manteaw, the chairman of the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GHEITI) says an amount of US$700 million in revenue has been accrued to the government as a result of fiscal reforms.
Speaking in an interview with Asaase News on the sidelines of the launch of the 2017/18 GHEITI Report in Sunyani, he said, “Recently there has been a study to attempt to quantify in monetary terms, how much these reforms have actually amounted to and the findings of this research say that over US$700 million additional revenue has been accrued.
Dr Manteaw said, “We also realise the effects of stability agreements and all these fiscal reforms especially with respect to Newmont and AngloGold Ashanti in particular. So based on our recommendations government has renegotiated the stability agreements of these two companies and made the applicable minimal royalty rate to change in the market conditions. We expect to get the fair share of the benefits from mining especially in an era of boom.’’
“The biggest challenge we have now has to do with the use of the community share of mineral royalties. This is because the evidence suggests that most of the assemblies that receive these mineral royalties on behalf of mining communities tend to misuse them, sometimes exclusively and other times predominantly in financing recurrent expenditure,’’ Dr Manteaw said.
He added that the group will work closely with other stakeholders to address the issue of the misuse of mineral royalties which is a major issue.
“Going forward we intend to work with the office of the Administrator of Stool Lands and also the Minerals Commission and the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to develop guidelines on the use of mineral royalties at the district level,’’ he added
Winifred Lartey
Asaase Radio 99.5 – tune in or log on to broadcasts online
99.5 in Accra, 90.7 in Ho, 98.5 in Kumasi, 99.7 in Tamale, 89.5 in Tarkwa, and 106.9 in Walewale
Follow us on Twitter: @asaaseradio995
#AsaaseRadio
#TheVoiceofOurLand
