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Miners, Govt. agree on measures to improve relations
…after talks on new taxes
The government and miners have agreed on a number of measures that will serve to improve relations as the new tax measures are to be implemented.
Miners and government officials during their meeting on Monday.
These measures came out of a meeting between the stakeholders on Monday to discuss a number of tax measures which are to be introduced to the mining sector and other issues affecting miners.
Present at the meeting were officials from the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA), the Guyana Women Miners Association (GWMA), small miners, the Ministry of Natural Resources, Guyana Geology and Mines Commission, the Guyana Revenue Authority and the Ministry of Finance.
According to a statement by the Finance Ministry, the stakeholders have agreed that the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) will shortly begin a series of awareness programmes which will target members of the mining industry.
The GGDMA and the GWMA are to collaborate to provide GRA with the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) of all miners under their purview.
Those miners who are compliant will be able to benefit from concessions. However, those who are non-compliant will be able to enter into an arrangement with the revenue authority to settle outstanding tax matters.
According to the agreement, miners who are without a TIN will be allowed to file their tax returns using a temporary TIN. Also, a help desk will be set up at the Ministry of Natural Resources.
Further, the agreement provides that a list of all the roads to be earmarked for repairs within mining communities will be provided to miners who will then add any other stretch of road they believe is deserving of attention.
The small miners were particularly asked to unite so as to improve their chances of benefiting from the concessions granted under the Investment Development Agreements (IDAs).
Among some of the issues discussed was the ‘Withholding’ Tax. Minister Jordan explained to miners that the change in the ‘Withholding’ Tax which was announced in the 2017 budget is not an additional tax as perceived by miners.
The ‘Withholding’ Tax is income tax which is withheld from the wages of employees and paid directly to the government by the employer. This is specific to non-resident contractors who will be subject to the deduction on gross payments made to them by the resident contractee.
The GGDMA were mandated by its membership following a meeting that they should sit down with the relevant government agencies to discuss the implementation of the new measures.
Under the new tax regime, certain goods and services will attract Value Added Tax; the tributors tax would be increased from 10 to 20 percent, and there will be a two per cent tax on gross. Added to this, miners will be required to file their income taxes at the end of the year.
The tributors tax is taken from the money paid to those hired to work in the mines. The increase in this aspect is of great concern to the GGDMA, since in the past, their members have had difficulty explaining the 10 per cent deduction to employees from their earnings.
This was a major concern since miners had indicated that on several occasions they were accosted by staff for the deduction, because their employees did not understand that the money must be deducted and given to the Guyana Revenue Authority.
It was argued that culturally it would be difficult to get the message of the increase over to the workers, since they are under the impression that the money is taken and kept by their employers.
Additionally, there is tremendous concern of the two per cent off the top charge on gross. Under the new regime this tax will remain but miners will be required to do their taxes to pay income tax.
Miners had said that a lot of the records which will be acceptable by the GRA are not easily attainable and, in some cases, impossible to get in the ‘bush’.
It was explained that when a miner hires an excavator operator to dig a pit or asks someone to drive a truck, those individuals would not have documentation readily available to record payments. This is further amplified since most miners are at their camps for months.
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