Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu on Thursday vowed to impose higher excise taxes for mining companies, saying that these would result in “very big revenues” for the government.
“Absolutely yes, kailangan [it’s needed],” Cimatu told reporters in a Palace news briefing.
Cimatu could not say by how much he wants excise tax to be increased but he is aware of options being suggested by some sectors.
“There was this study before. There were some proponents who wanted to increase this two percent to five percent but the mining companies are opposing, that’s how it is,” he said.
“These are things we have to plan properly. But two percent seems too small,” he added.
The government imposes on miners a two percent excise tax based on the gross value of minerals, aside from corporate income tax and fees for local government units where their mines are located.
But other countries impose higher tax rates, some collecting 10 percent excise tax from mining companies, Cimatu said.
“So these are the things that we have to look [into] because as of now, we are the fifth mineralized country in the world and their estimate is that if we can get all these, it can translate into a very big revenue for the government and it can translate I think into trillions of pesos,” he said.
In his second State of the Nation Address last July, President Rodrigo Duterte warned all mining stakeholders to practice responsible extraction and utilization of resources, or he will “tax them to death.”
The inter-agency Mining Industry Coordinating Council will meet next week to discuss whether or not to continue a ban on open-pit mining that was instituted by his predecessor, Gina Lopez.
Cimatu however said he will will “inhibit” from voting as he will be the one to decide on the future of the industry which recently gained the President’s ire.
Cimatu said that Duterte has directed the DENR to look into other options other than open pit mining.
“During a Cabinet meeting last September 4, the President ordered me to look into other options or modalities in getting what is inside the bowels of the earth aside from open pit mining,” Cimatu said, adding that a moratorium on new mining projects is still under review.
According to the DENR chief, President Duterte also instructed him not to allow mining in watersheds and to require mining companies to plant trees in barren areas within the company concession, which are not utilized for mining.
Cimatu noted that President Duterte is not against open pit mining as long as mining companies extend assistance to communities that are affected by the open pit mining.
“Mining companies will be given that elbow room, but eventually at some point in the future, open pit mining will have to return or to turn (to) more environmentally-accepted methods,” Cimatu said.
