Glencore PLC expects tax payments to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to be significantly higher in the future, compared to its 2017 payments totaling US$308.1 million.
The company said in a June 29 report that it paid about US$4.5 billion in taxes globally in 2017.
“In 2017, the economic value added by the Glencore Group was $14.7 billion, of which our total direct contribution to governments was over $4 billion. In this report, we note $2.78 billion of payments to governments in respect of our extractive industries,” CFO Steve Kalmin said.
Kalmin made the comments in a bid “to provide greater clarity on our overall contribution to the economic development of the DRC” as the country’s government implemented a new mining code.
In December 2017, DRC’s lower house adopted a revised code, in which it includes a 10% increase in state’s unpaid share on new mining projects compared to 5% previously, while large-scale mines would have to give at least a 10% project stake to a Congolese investor.
The law proposed to hike royalties on a slew of metals to 3.5% and end a 10-year stability clause. It allows a higher royalty on strategic metals such as cobalt and introduces a 50% super-profit tax.
