Vice President of IMANI Africa, Bright Simons, has expressed scepticism about the ability of the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) to address gold smuggling in the country, arguing that institutional innovation alone cannot resolve the problem.
Mr. Simons said gold smuggling was primarily driven by efforts to evade taxes and other costs associated with formalisation.
“GoldBod cannot solve smuggling. Smuggling, in the simplest form, is saying I won’t pay tax to the government. Some people are determined to smuggle, to evade the cost of formalisation, such as tax,” he said.
According to him, addressing smuggling requires broad efficiency reforms rather than the creation of new institutions.
“The only way to stop that person [from smuggling gold] is to do massive reform of efficiency. You cannot solve smuggling with institutional innovation like GoldBod. The gaps exist, and therefore there’s smuggling,” Mr. Simons added.
He stressed that without fundamental reforms to improve efficiency and reduce incentives for illegal activity, gold smuggling would persist despite new regulatory structures.
According to him, data available to him indicates that gold smuggling persists.
“We have data on gold trade in Ghana that is not disclosed by GoldBod. There is evidence, as far as I am concerned, that there is still a gap between what gold importers and exporters declare,” he said.
