Finance Minister, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has defended the government’s approach to capturing more value from Ghana’s extractive resources, particularly gold and oil.
In a video cited on his Facebook page, Dr. Forson said the country must have a system that ensures Ghanaians benefit from the economic rent generated by natural resources while investors also receive returns.
“I’ve always said that the time has come for Ghana to have a system to be able to benefit from economic rent of particularly extractive industry, oil or gold in the case of Ghana,” he said.
“It is a fact that shareholders must benefit, but it’s also a fact that the owners of the resource must also benefit.”
He said this principle informed the introduction of sliding-scale royalties, which take into account companies’ costs and expected profits.
“That was the reason why government of Ghana decided to introduce the sliding scale royalties, recognizing that yes, there is an all-in cost and there is also the level of profit that the company expects to make.”
Dr. Forson described the additional levy on excess returns as an “economic rent tax”, stressing that Ghana was not the first country to adopt such a system.
He also dismissed concerns that the policy was intended to discourage investment.
“When government introduced this from the beginning, impressions were created that we are driving investment away. Far from it. That was certainly not the intention of government.”
He said the government’s objective was simply to ensure that the country receives a fair share of the wealth generated from its own resources.
