Foreigners exporting gold illegally - Solomon Autel

President of the Ashanti Regional Gold buyers Association, Solomon Autel, has raised concern about the high rate of foreigners taking over the gold buying business in the country, and called on the authorities to check on their activities as they export the precious commodity illegally.

According to him, the association has officially written petitions to the Mineral Commission complaining about the foreigners’ take-over, especially the Indians, who are “destroying” the business, but no action has been taken.

Speaking in an interview with Otec News on Wednesday February 14, 2018, Mr. Autel said the inability of the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) to buy gold for export because of lack of funds has given the Indians undue advantage, buying and exporting the gold without passing through the proper channel, which, to him, is causing the country a revenue loss in its tax collection.

“These Indians in the gold buying business have huge capital bases so they can buy a lot of gold, at prices that we the local buyers cannot afford and export them without paying any export tax because their transactions do not pass through proper channel for the country to benefit,” he complained.

“We are therefore appealing to the government to halt their (Indians) activities, because their actions can collapse the local business and resource the PMMC to buy the gold for export,” Mr. Autel appealed.