Philippines’ official gold production down despite high prices

MANILA, Philippines—Philippine gold output dropped by nearly a fourth despite high global prices, pushing government to look into possible “unauthorized” sales by small-scale miners trying to evade taxation.

The Mines and Geosciences Bureau, an agency of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, reported Thursday that despite the dominance of gold in terms of the overall production value, the yellow metal suffered a setback in 2011 in both volume and value.

Volume went down by 24 percent and value by 10 percent as gold purchases of the Bangko Sentral Ng Pilipinas from small-scale miners dropped to 17,389 kilograms from 25,232 kg. That is a difference of 7,843 kg. or about 31 percent year-on-year, the MGB report noted.

Yet the price of gold, still considered a safe haven for investment in times of economic difficulties, held up, MGB said. Gold prices started climbing in 2001 from a measly $270.71 per ounce and reached a high of  $1,790.83 per ounce in September 2011.

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Ramon J.P. Paje said in a statement that the small-scale miners could have turned to “unauthorized buyers” due to the collection by the Bureau of Internal Revenue of a 2-percent excise tax and 10-percent creditable withholding tax from small-scale miners.

“The matter is now being investigated,” Paje said.

Overall, Philippine metallic output grew 9 percent P122.15 billion in 2011 from P111.97 billion in 2010, the MGB reported.