The government has announced plans to enact a new law governing the management of natural resources and mineral revenue in the country.
This is to accrue more revenue from the extractive sector as Ghana continues to discover new minerals.
The Chief of Staff at the Office of the Vice President, Alex Segbefia, disclosed this in a speech on behalf of the Vice President during the graduation of 203 cadet officers at the Customs Academy in Kpetoe, the Volta region.
The move by government for a new law for the minerals and natural resources sector is aimed at boosting revenue from the extractive sector to support national development.
This is due to calls from civil society that existing laws governing the sector is outdated.
“The recent elections gave our nation a great opportunity to reset for a fresh start to restore good governance and set our country on a trajectory of economic transformation. In this direction, government is committed to enhancing revenue mobilization and creating an equitable and efficient tax system”, he said.
“To achieve this, the government is amongst other measures, reviewing the tax exemption regime to promote transparency, economic growth, technology transfer and job creation; reviewing and rationalising port fees to enhance trade competitiveness and maximize revenue; resuming the restructuring of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) initiated by the previous NDC government to improve tax administration and compliance; Enacting a Natural Resources Revenue Management Act (NRMA) to increase revenue from the mineral resources including green minerals and new finds”, he said.
He also assured the Ghana Revenue Authority of government’s commitment to provide all the needed support to aid in revenue mobilisation.
According to him, the division has become the lifeblood of the country’s revenue mobilisation and hence the need to improve in operations.
The officers concluded the cadet course after almost nine months of official training in para-military and customs at the GRA academy.
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