Increased mining activity recorded since Gov’t incentives – Min Bharrat

− lauds growth of non-oil economy registered in Mid-Year Report

One of the success stories of the recent 2021 Mid-Year Report is the mining sector, and according to Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat, the increased mining activity over the past year can be traced to the incentives his Government provided for the sector.
The Mid-Year Report was released last week, and it showed that Guyana’s economy grew by 14.5 per cent in the first half of the year. It was also revealed that the mining and quarrying industries grew by 23.1 per cent, although gold contracted.
During a recent interview that featured his reaction to the Mid-Year Report, Minister Bharrat spoke of these increases and the role the incentives such as the removal of Value Added Tax (VAT) have played in the overall development of the extractive sector.
“Added to that, mining, which has been the backbone of the economy for a number of years now, may be the only sector that was doing well for over the last five or six years or so. Mining has actually kept the economy afloat,” Bharrat said.
“And we continue to see increased mining activity over the last year, especially with the incentives that our Government would have provided in the September 2020 budget. That is the VAT off the mining and logging equipment, agricultural equipment and machinery. Duty free on ATVs. So, we would have given a number of concessions in the natural resource sector.”

Bharrat also spoke of the importance of the non-oil extractive sector, of which gold mining is a part. As he put it, without oil and gas, Guyana’s growth rate would have been reflective of the non-oil economy.
“If you look at the growth in the non-oil economy, it’s quite significant. Almost 5 per cent growth in the non-oil economy. And that is important to look at. Because had we not had oil, that would have been our real growth rate,” the Minister said.
“So that is important, especially in this pandemic and with the flooding we went through. Especially the flood taking a heavy toll on the agriculture sector. We saw that in Black Bush Polder, Canals Numbers One and Two, in the Mahaicony area. We have seen the devastation, and regardless of that, we have still managed to achieve growth rate.”
Among the measures the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Government introduced last year was to remove VAT and duties on mining equipment. This effectively brought down the prices to procure the equipment necessary for the sector.
The Finance Ministry’s Mid-Year Report for 2021 has revealed that Guyana recorded real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 14.5 per cent, while non-oil GDP grew by 4.8 percent, despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and even the devastating floods experienced in May-June.
In a release on Tuesday evening, the Finance Ministry said that due to the unprecedented floods, which impacted particularly the agriculture, forestry and mining sectors, along with the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the effects of which will spill over into the last half of the year and even beyond, the revised full-year forecast for real GDP growth in 2021 is now 19.5 percent overall, and 3.7 percent for the non-oil economy.
Referring to the extractive industries, the Report indicated that in the first half of 2021, the mining and quarrying industries were estimated to have grown by 23.1 percent, with higher output from the petroleum and other mining industries, despite contractions in gold and bauxite.
The 2021 Mid-Year Report is expected to be tabled by Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh at the first sitting of the National Assembly, once the Assembly resumes in the wake of its current recess.