GMCL has fulfilled its tax obligations - Management

The Ghana Manganese Company Limited (GMCL) has said the company has not caused any loss of revenue to the state as they have honoured all their tax obligations.

It said because of their efforts in fulfilling the tax obligations they have won several distinguished awards.

Mr Omar Sautey Timtey, Public Relations (PR) Manager of GMCL, said this at a press conference at Nsuta Wassa after the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Kweku Asoma Cheremeh ordered the shutdown of GMCL on Monday, August 5.

The shutdown was due to their inability to fulfil their financial obligations which have resulted in a loss of revenue to the nation.

He said in December 2018, the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) did the transfer pricing audit of GMCL for the period 2013-2018 in order to ascertain the extent of its losses.

The report revealed that between January 2013 and June 2017 the price at which the ore was sold showed no revenue loss to the nation.

Mr Timtey said GRA adjusted the ore price between July 2017 to December 2018, which resulted in additional tax (corporation tax and royalties) of US$ 14, 063, 202. 77 adding that this amount has been paid to government.

“As a matter of fact the price of the manganese ore sold is now determined by GRA and this is something we would like to emphatically put on record; as a company we have no say in the fixing of the price”, he said.

In 2018, he said, the firm settled its corporation tax liability of US $31million before 31 December 2018 as required by law.

He said on royalties, the company paid US $ 17 million in 2018 and “as a matter of fact we are still waiting for an amount of US $20 million in VAT returns due to the company from GRA between the period of December and June 2019”.

“To date mining production of 4,054, 250 wet tonnes can be verified by the public from the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority. We are not in a position to alter these figures especially to the disadvantage of the government as the public has been made to believe” he said.

He said it is regrettable that the Minister cited indebtedness to their suppliers and its linkage to the supposed statutory obligations as what led to the closure of the mine.

The PR manager said as good corporate citizens they have continually engaged those vendors when they are unable to meet their side of the agreement for alternative arrangements.

He assured the stakeholders to remain calm as a meeting has been scheduled with the Ministry on Friday, August 9, to resolve the matter.

It would be recalled that in February 2019 GMCL obliged the order by the government for an audit of its books.

After the audit, the company said the findings and conclusions of the report was not brought to their attention for comments.