Ghana National Association of Small Scale Miners are threatening a nationwide demonstration to demand the withdrawal of a 10 percent withholding tax imposed on processed gold.

The tax if allowed to continue, according to the miners will cause the collapse of the industry and encourage smuggling of the commodity across the country's borders.

Members say the 10 percent tax currently being charged is unplanned and not well categorized to target the chain of producers at the local level.

General Secretary of the Small Scale Miners Association, Godwin Armah told Luv FM’s Erastus Asare Donkor that most of its members are struggling to keep up.

“Most of our people don’t even break, already they are selling at a loss and the are being charged 10 percent again so gradually people will just go out of business because you can’t survive. We are doing try your luck,” he said.

They are set to petition Parliament and other relevant agencies after initial discussions with officials of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to replace the tax with a proposed quarterly income tax regime yielded no positive results.

“We will also present our petition to the Parliamentary select committee, Minerals Commission and the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to let them know the impact of the taxes on the small scale mining industry.

“After discussing it, if nothing is done, we have no option than to let people know by hitting the streets or picketing at the Ministry of Finance until they listen to us,” he said.