As a part of the planned 10-year national mineral sector policy framework, miners across the country have proposed that a percentage of the government revenues collects in taxes and royalties from the sector go directly to the regions to cater for community specific projects.
“Similar to the Amerindian Purposes Fund, where part of the royalties government receives goes to this fund and many of these communities can access the funds directly for small project[s], we recommended that all the mining regions must have a fund that is topped up from royalties, where the RDCs, NDCs and villages can access for particular purposes,” University of Guyana Senior Lecturer and lead consultant on the National Mineral Sector Policy Framework & Actions (NMSPF&A), Sherwood Lowe, on Friday said.
“Small capital projects, such as fix a bridge/build a bridge …small projects so that people would see a link with mining in their backyard and the direct benefits of that link,” he further explained.