Taxation of mining industries

News

Ghanaian value added tax: decrease in the nominal rate but increase in the effective rate?

2019-07-22

In Ghana, the VAT rate was reduced from 15% to 12.5% in 2018 (Act 970). However, this reduction in the nominal rate hides an increase in the effective rate from 17.5% to 18.125%, including 5 "non-deductible" points.
Indeed, the National Health Insurance Levy of 2.5% and the Education Trust Fund Levy of 2.5% are excluded from the VAT imputation mechanism. As the new VAT rate of 12.5% is applied after these two levies, goods and services are now taxed at 18.125%: [1 + (2.5% + 2.5%)] x [1 + 12.5%] = [1 + 18.125%].

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Malian mining royalty: what is the special tax on certain products?

2019-07-21

In Mali, the mining royalty is called "ad valorem tax". Its base is the value of the extracted substances, exported or not, minus the intermediate costs and charges. Its rate is 1% or 3% depending on the ore.
However, the country has a second royalty, called the "special tax on certain products" (ISCP). These are in fact excise duties, the basis of which is turnover excluding value added tax. Its rate is framed by law and fixed by regulation. Until 2012, it was 3% for all mining products. From now on it is 5% but only concerns gold and marble.

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WAEMU Community Mining Code: adoption of the draft revision

2019-07-17

Meeting in Ouagadougou on 29 June 2019, the Ministers in charge of Mines of the member countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) approved the draft revision of the Community Mining Code. This was adopted in 2003 (Regulation No. 18/2003/CM/UEMOA of 22 December 2003) as part of the common mining policy (Additional Act No. 01/2000 of 14 December 2000).

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Update 2017 and 2018: Madagascar, Mauritania and Senegal

2019-07-02

Updated tax data for 2017 and 2018 are now available for Madagascar, Mauritania and Senegal.
In Madagascar, mining administration fees have been adjusted (Order No. 20173/2018 of 26 january 2018). In Mauritania, mining taxation has not changed (Act n°2017-004 of 19 January 2017 and Act n°2018-001 of 11 January 2018). In Senegal, a new Mining Act has been adopted (Act No. 2016-032 of 8 November 2016) and was supplemented by its regulation (Decree No. 2017-459 of 20 March 2017).

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New Senegalese Mining Act: what changes?

2019-07-01

Senegal has adopted a new Mining Act (Act No. 2016-032 of 8 November 2016). It aims to rebalance the sharing of the mineral resource rent in favour of the State. This new Act is part of the continuation of the reforms of the special regimes (Act n°2012-032 of 31 December 2012) and the concentration of tax measures in the General Tax Code (Act n°2012-31 of 31 December 2012). Fixed fees are increased, the surface fees is reintroduced and the mining royalty abandons the single rate (3%) for differentiated rates per ore (5% for gold). These measures therefore increase the tax burden applicable to gold mining companies. For a representative medium grade mine (3g/t) and a gold price of $1250/oz, the average effective tax rate (AETR) increases from 50% to 53%.

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