President John Mahama has praised the JoyNews investigative report titled “Tax for Galamsey”, describing it as a useful intervention that has exposed a widespread but troubling practice across mining districts.

Speaking at a Dialogue with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) at the Jubilee House, the President said the exposé helped uncover how some district assemblies were collecting revenue from illegal mining activities.

The JoyNews’ Hotline Documentary uncovered a sophisticated pay-to-destroy syndicate operating in the heart of the Amansie Central District in the Ashanti Region.

The investigation reveals that the assembly has effectively legalised environmental destruction by forming a task force to issue stickers and levying taxes on prohibited mining equipment, including the notorious changfang machines.

“I think that the JoyNews exposé was good,” he said, noting that it prompted further investigations by the Presidency.

According to him, the report revealed that a district assembly had been taxing “changfan” machines used in small-scale mining. However, further checks showed the practice was not limited to one district.

“When we investigated, it wasn’t only that district. It was almost all the districts in the gold mining areas were doing the same thing,” he said.

President Mahama explained that the situation partly arose from efforts by district assemblies to increase their internally generated funds.

“One easy way to increase those funds was to tax small-scale gold mining. The mistake they made was that they didn’t differentiate between legal small-scale mining and illegal small-scale mining,” he said.

He added that the practice existed even before some current district chief executives took office.

“It had existed before these DCEs came into office, and so they continued the practice,” he said, explaining that any machine brought into a district, whether for legal or illegal use, was taxed.

The President described the practice as unacceptable, especially in the context of efforts to tackle illegal mining, widely known as galamsey.

“We’ve given a strict directive that they are not supposed to tax changfan machines. Changfan machines are illegal, and so they shouldn’t be taxed,” he said.

He further revealed that the practice extended beyond changfan machines to other equipment.

“They were even taxing excavators. Any excavator that enters, they tax it,” he said, warning that such actions undermine the fight against illegal mining.

President Mahama said that revenue generation must not be tied to unlawful activities.

“You cannot increase internally generated revenue from illegal activity. Otherwise, then you can tax marijuana farmers and all of them,” he said.

He said the government has directed the Special Adviser on Governmental Affairs and the Ministry of Local Government to issue clear guidelines and organise orientation for district authorities.

“We’ve asked them to bring the assemblies in for orientation on what internally generated revenue raising is,” he said.