UG Govt plans new tax on gold exports

Gold has been a major driver of the export numbers in the period under review. Photo / File

By Precious Delilah

The government of Uganda is plotting a new levy on all gold exports in the proposed revised Mining and Minerals (Export Levy) Regulations.

The new levy, according to the regulations seen by this publication, is meant to avoid loss of revenue to the government.

“There shall be charged a levy on processed gold at the rate of United States Dollars two hundred per kilogramme, which is exported out of Uganda,” Sub regulation (1) of the document reads.

It adds: “The levy referred to in Sub regulation (1) shall be paid by the exporter to the Uganda Revenue Authority [URA] at the time the processed gold is exported out of Uganda.”

The regulations were made by the minister responsible for mineral development in line with Section 287(2) (s) of the Mining and Minerals Act, 2022.

The proposed regulations also state that processed gold refers to refined gold with a minimum fineness of 99.5 percent purity since the export of unrefined gold was banned when the Mining and Minerals Bill, 2021, was signed into law on February 17, 2022.

The above regulation will be a revision from $100 (about Shs360,000) for each kilogramme of refined gold exports stated in the Mining and Minerals Act, 2021.

However, in July 2021, the gold exporters and the government disagreed over a five percent levy that had been imposed on the exports. This led to the suspension of gold exports for close to a year until the Finance ministry stayed the implementation.

The Auditor General’s report for 2021/22 indicated that URA had failed to collect taxes on gold exports amounting to Shs340b, which was attributed to the loopholes in export regulations.

In a telephone interview, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, Mr Solomon Muyita, said they were still reviewing the regulations.

“The permanent secretary was reviewing the document before the minister could sign,” he said before promising to get back with more details but had not done so by press time.

Efforts to reach the association of gold exporters were futile.

Background

On January 16, URA signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Gold Refiners, Exporters, and Dealers Association of Uganda to streamline relations.

Information from the taxman indicates that the MoU will ensure members become tax compliant and pay existing tax arrears as far back as July 2021.

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