COURSE DESCRIPTION
Subsoil natural resource endowments and their associated rents if well harnessed and managed can be a boom to developing countries. Unfortunately, most often the extractive industries of oil, gas and mining have instead been associated with the “resource curse”. The extractive sector is of primary importance to African states. The International Monetary Fund classifies 20 of the African countries to be resource rich, these are countries where extractives form more than 25% of the country’s total export earnings While the extractive sector contributes a significant share of export earnings in developing countries, 92% for Guinea, 92% for Botswana, 93% for Democratic Republic of Congo and 75% for Zambia, this often doesn’t correspond to the share of revenue realized by the government from the sector. The contribution of mining varies significantly across countries, from 3 to 25 per cent of total government revenues. The variation does not always correspond to the value of the production of the countries extractive sector. The inevitable has made the debate on taxation of extractives a topical challenge for many resource rich countries. Revelations of revenue losses in the industry from Illicit Financial Flows from Africa’s extractive industry have further emphasized the need for countries to revisit their fiscal frameworks governing extractives. While taxation of the mining industry varies considerably from nation to nation, the aim of this module is to point out the key principles of a just extractive tax regime for countries and ultimately citizens to benefit from their subsoil wealth.
DESIRED CLASS PROFILE:
Policy Makers, Legislators, Tax Justice Advocates and Activists with basic understanding of Taxation
OBJECTIVES OF THE SESSION:
- The objective of the session is to equip trainees with an understanding of what Tax Justice entails in the context of extractives.
- The objective will be met by equipping the trainees with an understanding of concepts of extractive taxation, what comprises of a good extractive tax framework, and ways in which loopholes of taxation leaks from extractives can be curbed.
EXPECTED APTITUDES TO BE ACQUIRED:
- An Understanding of why it is important to tax extractives
- An Understanding of the different fiscal objectives that governments have in taxing extractives
- An Understanding of the different tax instruments used in taxing extractives
COURSE OUTLINE:
- Why tax extractives?
- What are extractives?
- Why is extractives taxation different?
- Contribution of Extractive industries to exports, revenue, and GDP of countries.
- Tax instruments and Corresponding Government Objectives?
- What tax instruments are usually used to tax extractives?
- What are the different government objectives for revenue mobilization?
- What tax instruments correspond to different government objectives?
- What comprises of a good tax design for extractives?
- What are resource rents?
- Progressive taxation of extractive revenues?
- Case of Artisanal and Small-scale mining
- Examples of elements to capture resource rents and make tax progressive.
- How to make you tax regime work and seal loopholes. (Video Presentation)
- Curbing loopholes on production and cost dependent taxes
- Transparency as a must
- Having the right administrative capacity to administer taxes
- Course Assessment Quiz
ESTIMATED SESSION DURATION:
Session duration is 2 hours
Course Features
- Lectures 1
- Quizzes 0
- Duration 69 hours
- Skill level All levels
- Language English
- Students 50
- Certificate No
- Assessments Yes