Finance official sees good things miners do

For one Finance official, the one major obstacle the mining industry has to overcome is the public’s negative perception of its operations in the country.

“It has been said that the public discourse on mining in the Philippines is dominated by those against the industry,” Finance Assistant Secretary Ma. Teresa S. Habitan said.

“I have seen the many good things [they] do like building an exceptional school in Rio Tuba. You must tell the world about these things because, by not being able to do so, the industry is assuming the role of a villain,” she explained.

Rio Tuba is a a nickel producing area in Palawan.

Habitan added that mining companies could also take steps to help make the industry more transparent, in particular, by signing a waiver to allow the Bureau of Internal Revenue access to tax information.

Habitan is the country’s point person in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), an international body that promotes openness in all mine dealings, particularly revenues, taxes, royalties, signature bonuses and other payments.

The Philippines is one of 16 countries trying to comply with the standards set by the Norway-based EITI.

Based on a list kept by the Philippine unit of EITI (PH-EITI), 40 of 51 companies engaged in mining, petroleum and coal have so far issued waivers to allow the BIR to access tax information.

According to the PH-EITI data, the 11 companies that have so far failed to issue such waivers are Citinickel Mines & Development Corp., Pacific Nickel Philippines Inc., Mt. Sinai Mining Exploration and Development Corp., AAM-PHIL Natural Resources Exploration and Development Corp., The Philodrill Corp., Oriental Petroleum & Minerals Corp., Alcorn Gold Resources Corp., Trans Asia Oil & Energy Development Corp., Forum Energy Philippines Corp., Forum Pacific Inc., and Semirara Mining Corp.

On her part, Senator Grace Poe said that once the Freedom of Information bill becomes law, the government would be obligated to disclose all mining contracts to the general public.

“As you all know, there is a new revenue-sharing scheme in the works, [and] our government needs the transparency report to help it compute the right formula for what constitutes as ‘fair and equitable share’ for everyone involved,” said Poe, one of the sponsors of the bill.

The senator was referring to the bill being pushed by the interagency Mining Industry Coordinating Council that would ensure government a 10-percent share in the mining industry’s gross sale, or 55 percent of the adjusted net mining revenue plus a share in windfall profit, whichever is higher.

This is on top of national and local taxes, including real property tax, value-added tax, capital gains tax, stock transaction tax, documentary stamp tax, and withholding tax on passive income, as well as regulatory fees and charges.

“The Philippine mining industry needs to move forward,” Poe said last week. “We need to fast-track approval of the new revenue-sharing formula because, as I speak, $12 billion worth of mining projects are on hold pending [such approval].”

Critics from the mining sector have expressed their concern about the bill, saying it would negatively affect the flow of investments to the country.

To resolve the problems, the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines has hunkered down to draw up a roadmap for the industry.

COMP president Benjamin Philip G. Romualdez already asked various experts, many from the academe, to help in preparing an industry strategy that would be presented to Malacañang for discussion.