Major relief for miners with removal of Tributors tax
Small and medium-scale miners have been given a major relief as government removed the 10 per cent Tributors Tax following the passage of the Fiscal Enactments Amendment Bill 2022.
Senior Minister in the office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh addressing the National Assembly on Monday, said the bill seeks to bring into law several measures which were announced by the PPP/C Administration to bring relief to the mining industry.
He said this comes on the heels of a meeting which government held with the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners’ Association (GGDMA) which represents the interests of small and medium scale miners. During the meeting which was led by Vice President, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, the removal of the Tributors Tax was one of the commitments made to ease the burden of miners.
According to the Guyana Revenue Authority’s official website, Tributors Tax is a unique form of income tax that is only applicable to the mining industry in Guyana. The website also states that it operates in the same way as PAYE, in that Mining Corporations deduct tax from individual miners and then submit a quarterly remittance detailing the miners they have deducted tax for during the period.
Minister Singh said the removal of the tax will ensure there is competitiveness within the industry.
“This was a measure amongst the several punitive measures that were implemented by the APNU+AFC in government with no concern whatsoever such measures would have on the industry, on production and on people,” Minister Singh stated.
The senior finance minister said the APNU+AFC during its time in office displayed a callous attitude towards every productive sector in the country. He said aside from bringing the sugar industry to its knees, it introduced Value Added Tax on heavy-duty equipment, which are essential to the mining industry.
Those harsh measures, the minister said prevented many small and medium-scale miners from working. He said it demonstrated the hostile posture the previous administration took against production, job creation and viability of small and medium scale gold miners.
“Even in opposition, we recognise how important to nurture a growing gold mining industry which has served this country well. For many yearsit hasbeen the largest foreign exchange earner in this country. It employs directly and indirectly perhaps more than 20,000 persons that are dependent on this industry for their livelihood, entire communities in the hinterland of Guyana are dependent on this industry,” the minister said.
Meanwhile, Natural Resources Minister, Vickram Bharrat said while the amendments to the bill may be simple, they will have significant impacts, especially in Amerindian communities that depend on mining.
He stressed while large-scale mining is done by foreign companies, it is Guyanese who are involved in medium and small-scale mining; therefore, it is Guyanese who the bill will impact the most.
“Since we took office there has been a number of measures taken by our government to incentivise the mining sector and this is all part of our promise as a government to ensure that we continue to grow the non-oil sectors. And that is why you would have seen the amount of emphasis and amount of investment we are making in the non-oil sector… this is one such example Mr. Speaker of our government’s commitment to the miners and to the mining sector,” Minister Bharrat said.
The amendment of the bill also reduces the final tax on the income of miners by one per cent bringing it down from 3.5 percent to 2.5 per cent.
There were also some minor adjustments to several reporting and filing dates which were proven to be onerous in implementation. This includes setting a prescribed payment date for the tax to be paid.