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Lands Ministry clamps down on defaulting mining companies

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The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources says several quarries, stones, sand, salt, limestone and clay mining companies operating in the country have evaded taxes and royalties payment including other similar obligations due the state for years.
The outgoing Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, John-Peter Amewu has said: “when you take the list of mining companies that pay royalties and other taxes to government, you will find that only one or two quarries or salt winning companies do so on a somewhat regular basis. The bulk majority of others have for years reneged on their tax and royalties obligations to the state. And yet these are the same companies that continuously damage and destroy our roads through the haulage of bulk materials including stones, rocks, sand and salt among others and also cause considerable damage to the environment.”
A statement issued by the Ministry said, it has commenced an exercise to clamp down on all such defaulting mining companies and penalise them severely, including and among others the revocation of their licences and closing down their operations.
The statement which was signed and issued by the Chief Director, Professor Patrick Agbesinyale said the Ministry has already commissioned EOCO and National Security to undertake both operational and financial audits of all such quarries, stones, sand, gravels, salt, limestone and clay mining companies. This exercise is currently underway. According to the Minister, cabinet has also recommended a comprehensive operational audit for all mining companies operating in the country.
The statement said: “the Ministry upon preliminary investigations was shocked to discover that several quarries, sand, salt and allied companies operating in the country hardly paid anything to the state in the form of royalties and other taxes. It is for this reason that, the Ministry has embarked on these actions which will be sustained over time. Prof. Agbesinyale revealed that, the Ministry intends to cure this anomaly among others, by ensuring that government representatives are appointed to sit on the governing boards of some of these companies.”
The statement further admonished many of such defaulting companies to redeem themselves as soon as possible to avoid very serious consequences

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