Players in quarrying industry want an exemption in the imposition of a 40 percent increase in corporate tax for mining companies.Until the beginning of this year, the corporate tax on mining of natural resources was 25 percent. The tax was however increased to 35 percent in the 2012 Budget.Reasons cited for the upward review included the rising world market prices of precious minerals and the harm of mining to the environment.The quarrying sub-sector is however demanding an exemption because their operations are excessively taxed, especially with the monthly payment of royalties on the sales of products.According to Adonis Halaby, Managing Director of Northern Mines and Quarrying Limited, though quarrying involves extraction of natural resources, the products are not exported, hence “does not benefit from the high world market prices of Gold and other minerals”.He raised the concern at a Pre-2013 Budget Tax Consultative meeting in Kumasi, organized by the Tax Policy Unit of the Ministry of Finance to identify the weak links in existing tax policies.Quarrying in Ghana consists mostly of smaller-scale operations that produce sand, gravel, cement, limestone, and granite for the real estate and infrastructure development projects, where demand is on the ascendency.Ashanti regional chairman of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Robert Kwaakye Nkatia, noted that high taxation on quarries would increase the cost of construction of roads, hospitals and other buildings because quarry products are strictly used for national development projects.A Tax Policy Advisor at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr. Edward Larbi-Siaw, observed the mining corporate tax is applicable to the sector because Mining and Quarrying are not separate in the Ghana Statistical Service’s classification.But Adonis Halaby is advocating a split of the mining sector into sub-sectors of precious minerals and industrial minerals for fair treatment to the businesses in the industry.The AGI is expected to take the matter up with government for a review.