Controversy yesterday erupted over a meeting between the Ministry of Finance and miners on Monday with the GGDMA stating that the talks had been derailed by the presence of “fringe groups”.
A statement from the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Associ-ation (GGDMA) yesterday on the meeting was diametrically opposed to one the day before from the Ministry of Finance.
The blistering GGDMA statement said it wished to state “categorically to our members that we have not agreed to any new position with the Ministry of Finance or the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).
We will continue work in good faith and partnership with the Ministry of Finance and the GRA and continue to consult. We will be holding a meeting soon to inform Miners as to the way forward”.
It said that on January 16th 2017 it met with the Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan and was “unexpectedly joined by a group of itinerant miners accompanied by the (Junior) Minister of Natural Resources Hon. Simona Broomes. We regret to inform our members that the proposed agenda was derailed and nothing of consequence was achieved because of the intrusion by these new groups”.
The GGDMA asserted that it along with the Guyana Women Miners Organisation (GWMO), tried to continue to have a fruitful meeting with the Minister of Finance who was willing to listen to the issues of the Miners but that those pretending to represent miners created a new agenda.
“This prevented the core issues of taxation and regulatory difficulties for miners from being fully discussed. We instead were railroaded by this surprise addition to our meeting. This new group does not have legitimate miners’ interest at heart.
“We call on all Miners (small, medium and large scale), Marrak-Men, Porkknockers, Operators and all involved in the industry to let your voices be heard and let the Government of Guyana understand that we will not be divided. We urge you to let the Government of Guyana know who will represent your issues and to let those who wish to keep Miners ignorant and wish to sell out the industry, understand that we stand, one for all and all for one!”, the GGDMA thundered.
The GGDMA said that the Ministry of Finance and the GRA had agreed that miners need to better understand the issues and as a result the GRA will attend a meeting, to be scheduled, to answer questions and clarify issues for miners.
“We will continue to press the Government to address the concerns raised by our members at our recent meeting. While the Minister of Finance and the Commissioner (of the GRA Godfrey Statia) commenced the process of addressing same and even providing us with some logical reasons why these changes to the tax policy were made, the uninformed so-called representatives destroyed any hope of meaningful and constructive discussions regarding potential alternatives to accomplish the goal of ensuring that all miners pay their fair share”, the GGDMA said.
A press statement from the Ministry of Finance on Tuesday said that at the meeting, miners who were represented by the GGDMA, the GMWO and a number of small miners “were keen to discuss the tax measures announced in the recent Budget presentation, which they perceived as ‘over-taxation of the industry” and their fears that those measures may have a deleterious effect on the industry.”
In response to the miners’ queries the ministry release said that Jordan clarified “that the change in the With-holding Tax announced in Budget 2017 is not an additional tax as perceived by the miners, and that, existing concessions are available to all miners once they are tax compliant” while noting that compliance is the only criterion used by the GRA for the issuance of concessions.
Further, Jordan committed the Ministries of Finance and Natural Resources and the GRA to providing the miners with any assistance that they may need to help them improve their knowledge of the taxation system and accessibility to its benefits.
As a result of Monday’s meeting members of the mining industry will soon benefit from a series of awareness programmes conducted by the GRA while the GGDMA and GWMO will collaborate to provide the GRA with the Tax Payer Identification Number (TIN) of all miners under their purview and miners who are found to be compliant will be able to access concessions, while those who are non-compliant will be allowed to enter into an arrangement with the GRA to have their outstanding tax matters settled.
Additionally miners who do not have a TIN will be allowed to file their tax returns using a temporary TIN while a notice will be placed at the entrance of the GRA stating that `Miners submitting their tax returns will not be refused if they do not have a TIN’ and a help desk will be set up at the Ministry of Natural Resources.
Roads
Meanwhile a list of all the roads that are earmarked for repairs within the mining communities will be made available to the miners who will then suggest others that can be included and small miners have been urged to band together so that they can benefit from
concessions granted under Investment Development Agreements (IDAs).
Small miner Judith David-Blair in a press statement was full of praise for the meeting and the various ministries.
David-Blair who told Stabroek News on Tuesday that she was speaking on behalf of the small miners from the Karrau Mining Syndicate, Mahdia/Konawaruk Small Miners Association and Parika Mora Small Miners Association hailed the meeting as “the long-awaited official acknowledgement of the legitimacy of the pursuits of the small mining community.”
“We as small miners after this meeting clearly understand that this tax implementation will not be hazardous to us and that the true reason for this is because of the defaulters who happened to be some of the real big miners”, she said.
At a January 6 meeting of the GGDMA, miners had raised concerns about demands by the GRA to show their financial records. They argued that the logistics in the hinterland do not easily allow for the “receipts with revenue stamps, bills and books” that are required and pleaded with the tax collection agency to not only give them more time to get themselves in order but to also revise “new and complex tax measures” introduced in the 2017 national budget that they said will be burdensome and confuse the ordinary miner.
However, David-Blair said on Tuesday that Monday’s meeting shows that government, through the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Guyana Revenue Authority, will support small miners’ efforts to comply with the laws of the country in the matters of the filing of tax returns and the payment of taxes as a desk is to be established at the Guyana Geology & Mines Commission (GGMC) to provide guidance to small miners in their quest to become tax-compliant
She also noted that the meeting shows the Government of Guyana’s commitment to working with small groups, syndicates and non-governmental organizations in the gold-mining sector to ensure that small miners benefit fully from such concessions as are available to the sector and firmly established that small mining groups, including Cooperatives and Syndicates can apply for and secure exemptions from taxes relating to the purchase of heavy-duty equipment associated with mining activities.
It was also established that the aforementioned categories of miners can sign concession agreements once they are tax compliant.
Miners had expressed concerns that the 2017 budget increased the Tributors Tax from 10% to 20%. Jordan had explained that the tax on tributors has remained unchanged since its inception in 1998 and the increase, which is in line with the withholding tax, is the first to removing distortions and multiplicity of tax rates.
The miners had said they already face “serious objections, personal violence and harassment” from employees who do not wish to have the tributors tax deducted from their salaries. As a result, they argued that to ask for double is exposing operators to even more aggression. “We do not welcome the burden of collecting tax for Guyana Revenue authority (GRA). We are asking the GRA to mount a public awareness campaign to ensure that workers understand that the increase is a GRA requirement. This would prevent many of the altercations in the interior over this matter. It would also help legitimate miners to convince staff not to leave and work with companies who prefer to pay off the books,” they added.
