Gold Exporters Want Government to Reduce New Taxes

Government is still engaging stakeholders, among them gold exporters, who have asked that the current tax regime on the commodity be revised downwards.

Under the Mining (Amendment) Bill 2021, government had imposed a $200 levy on each exported kilogramme of gold.

However, the levy was revised to 5 per cent for every kilogramme of the refined precious metal and 10 per cent for the unprocessed. In its August Economic Performance report, the Ministry of Finance indicated that no gold had been exported in the month of July, pending a resolution of the revision of the levies.

During July, the Ministry of Finance noted that government had imposed a levy of 5 per cent and 10 per cent on every kilogramme of refined and unprocessed gold, respectively, which dealers had asked that are revised downwards.

“The [exporters] have requested government to revise this tax downwards and negotiations are being held to this end. Pending the conclusion of these negotiations, there were no exports of gold from Uganda in the month of July,” the report reads in part.

As result, the report noted, export receipts declined for the second consecutive month, partly due to failure to register gold exports for the first time in over six years.

Gold is currently Uganda’s largest export commodity, contributing at least 44 per cent of total export volumes, according to data from Bank of Uganda.

According to Bank of Uganda, export receipts in July declined by at least 51 per cent, dropping to $300.3m (Shs1 trillion) compared to $455.4m (Shs1.6 trillion) in June as a result of failure to export gold during the period.

This, the Central Bank said, was the lowest earnings Uganda had received from exports since May last year, which had declined to $290m due to Covid-19 related disruptions.