Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat has urged workers in the logging and mining industry to assist the government to deter illegal activities within the sectors.
The call to action was made at a meeting on Thursday at Watooka Guest House during government’s outreach in Region Ten.
“When we have illegal logging, illegal mining, it takes away a lot of revenue from the country. It creates unfair competition to you because a contractor will go and purchase illegal lumber at a cheaper rate rather than purchasing from you because you are paying royalties, you are paying all your taxes and everything. They can afford to sell cheaper because they pay nothing,” Bharrat was quoted as saying in a Department of Public Information (DPI) report.
“So, you need to help us. You need to work with us to ensure that we can curb this trend,” he added.
According to him, illegal activities in the extractive industry are of immense concern to the administration.
Bharrat, the DPI report said, indicated that the government will continue to facilitate access to new markets for small to medium scale loggers of Region 10 in keeping with its campaign manifesto.
To further strengthen the forestry sector, he added that more emphasis will be placed on creating value-added products.
“We have been comfortable over the years to export logs. However, we can increase our revenue significantly if we convert those logs to lumber, if we convert those lumber to wood products.”
