By Felix Cofie.
Government has set up a 9 Member Committee to deal with gold smuggling.
The Committee has representation from the Military, the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) the National Security Council, the Ghana Revenue Authority, (GRA), the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), Ghana Boundary Commission (GHBC) the Minerals Commission, and the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources.
Inaugurating the Committee a Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources George Mireku Duker said, “People are smuggling our gold and we want to prevent that and that is the essence of this meeting.”
He added that the task force is also needed because of the dwindling statistics of the country’s Gold stressing that if this continues, Ghana will lose its position as a leading Gold producer in Africa.
Mr Mireku Duker said the 3% withholding tax placed on the unprocessed precious Minerals produced by Small-Scale Miners is what has led to people smuggling gold outside the borders to sell.
He said the government is looking into the issue of the 3% withholding tax and will soon take a decision on it.
The Ministry, he noted, has held series of dicussions with cabinet for the law on the 3 percent tax withholding tax to be amended but until those amendments are made, there is the need for swift ways to stop the menace.
“Before this law is amended, we cannot sit for people to connive and hide under this law and continue to smuggle and so there is the need for us to put up measures to curb this menace,” he stressed.
He further admonished the Committee to brace themselves for the task ahead saying they cannot afford to fail at this task because the Sector Minister is determined to see it through and so is Ghana depending on them.
The Chairman of the PMMC Board, Kiston Akomeng Kissi, in a remark asked that the selected security services work hand in hand with the managements of the Ministry and the PMMC to ensure that the goal for which the taskforce was established is achieved.
The Chief Executive of PMMC Nana Akwasi Awuah in a statement reiterated that one of the task assigned them as the PMMC Board is to check the issue of Gold smuggling and as the Committee has been set up, they expect results and collaboration.