It’s a lazy man’s approach to increase taxes on extractive sector – Dr. Tony Aubyn

A former Chief Executive Officer for the Minerals Commission, Dr. Tony Aubyn has stated that any move to unnecessarily tax the extractive sector will be a lazy man’s approach to revenue collection.

He made the assertion in reaction to a call by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), asking government to increase taxes on the extractive sector.

According to him, measures should be rather put in place to have the extractive companies support various communities within which they operate.

“It’s a lazy man’s approach to increase taxes for the extractive sector. They are already involved in so many project where they operate, so increasing their taxes is not the best way to support them”, he said.

“I think we need to be more innovative as a people because if you introduce too many taxes, investors would now have to explore other options and invest elsewhere”, he added.

Dr. Aubyn reiterated the need for government to streamline the extractive sector to attract more investors.

He called for a direct involvement of government in Ghana’s Lithium Production project.

“The concessions can be given out to the private sector but there is the need for government to explore various ways of investing into the project. We need the government to be directly involved in this exercise rather than just be relying on the 10 percent returns we get”, he maintained.