“It will make the Philippine mining industry uncompetitive and will deter investors from coming in, thus preventing foreign capital influx and other socioeconomic benefits, such as development of the countryside where minerals are abundant, and employment for people in rural areas,” he added.
“The portion of the small-scale mining sector in the country that is unregulated produces far more gold than the legitimate large-scale mining industry—yet this sector does not pay taxes and, for the most part, its output is not captured, which could otherwise form part of the country’s international reserves,” he added.
These amounts could have been collected had the National Internal Revenue Code been amended, said the agency, which also pushed for royalty collection outside MRAs in its 2017 report on the MGB. The DOF has appealed to the Senate to pass its original proposal of a uniform royalty rate of 5 percent for all mining operations.
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