Gov’t Raises Growth & Sustainability Levy on Mining Firms from 1% to 3%; Extends Sunset of Clause to 2028
The Government of Ghana is proposing an increase in the Growth & Sustainability Levy for the mining sector from 1% to 3% on gross production, Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has announced. The move aims to ensure that the country benefits adequately from the recent surge in gold prices.
Dr. Forson made this known while presenting the 2025 Budget to Parliament on Tuesday, March 11, 2025. He further stated that the Government intends to extend the sunset clause of the Growth & Sustainability Levy to 2028.
Speaking on the floor of Parliament, the Finance Minister emphasized that Ghana has not fully leveraged its extractive sector to generate the necessary revenue for national development and economic diversification.
“Ghana has not sufficiently capitalized on the benefits of its extractive sector to generate revenue to support development and diversification. We have failed to leverage our natural wealth by capturing its rent and channeling it towards productive infrastructure and human capital. Natural resource rent, which is the difference between the revenue of a commodity and the average cost of producing it, is about 14% of GDP for Ghana. However, revenue from the extractive industry is around 1.5% of GDP only. This is because we fail to fully capture the economic rent of our natural resources,” Dr. Forson stated.
He noted that despite the rise in global gold prices, Ghana has not been able to capitalize on the windfall. “Mr. Speaker, whereas global gold prices have seen some significant increase in recent times, Ghana has not been able to take full advantage of this development. Consequently, we are proposing to increase the Growth & Sustainability Levy from 1% on the gross production of mining companies to 3% to enable the nation to have its fair share of the windfall from the increase in gold prices,” he added.
The Growth & Sustainability Levy is imposed on companies based on their industry classification. In some sectors, it is applied to profit before tax, while in others, such as the mining sector, it is levied on gross production for the year under assessment.
If approved, the new levy will increase government revenue from the extractive sector and contribute to national development initiatives.
