You can’t tax illegal activity’ – Mahama tells District Assemblies

President John Dramani Mahama has directed Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to immediately stop taxing equipment linked to illegal mining, warning that such practices undermine the fight against galamsey.

Speaking during a Presidential Dialogue with Civil Society Organisations, Mahama said investigations revealed that several assemblies had been collecting revenue from machinery used in small-scale mining—both legal and illegal.

“When we told them to increase their internally generated funds, one easy way was to tax small-scale gold mining. The mistake they made was they didn’t differentiate legal from illegal,” he explained.

According to the President, the practice—particularly the taxation of “chamfer” machines and excavators—was not limited to a single district but widespread across mining areas.

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

Mahama said the situation defeats national efforts to curb illegal mining and has therefore been decisively addressed.

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

He emphasized that “chamfer” machines used in illegal mining are themselves unlawful and should not be legitimised through taxation.

“Chamfer machines are illegal, and so they shouldn’t be taxed,” he stressed.

The President revealed that directives have been issued through the Ministry of Local Government and the Presidency to halt the practice and educate district officials on appropriate revenue mobilisation strategies.

“We’ve given strict instructions… and we are bringing them in for orientation on what internally generated revenue raising is,” he said.

Mahama also highlighted ongoing enforcement measures, noting that security agencies have been ordered to destroy illegal mining equipment wherever it is found.

“Any chamfer machine they find, whether on the river or on land, they should destroy it,” he added.

Beyond enforcement, the government is tightening controls at the ports to prevent the importation of components used to assemble illegal mining machinery.

“While we’re destroying what is in the system, we must also make sure that the components that come to build new ones are not allowed in,” he noted.