The biologist and scientific researcher of the Center for Environmental Incidence (CIAM), Isaías Ramos, analyzed this Friday the negotiation that the State maintains with the Minera Panamá company, after yesterday the National Government presented its last economic-fiscal proposal and gives it a deadline to said company until next Monday, January 17 to accept it or not.
According to Ramos, they do not see any change in the Executive’s position, “despite the fact that even in the Bicentennial Dialogue one of the activities proposed by civil society and that they accepted, was that of a mining moratorium.”
“They are now doing a renegotiation of a device that has already been repeatedly declared illegal, unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Justice,” he said.
He asserted that the Government continues to bet on mining with these actions, a practice that continues to be a problem that affects everyone and mainly the environment.
He said that the creation of the High Level Commission that is carrying out this negotiation is illegal because it has no technical basis.
The proposal presented, in economic-fiscal matters, consists of charging a royalty on the gross profit (This royalty ranges from 12 to 16%), the collection of income tax, which must be collected from the first year, is they eliminate tax holidays, withholding tax for bank interest payments and withholding for payment of dividends.
With this scheme, the State would receive income from the company Cobre Panamá, in excess of $400 million annually; it ensures a minimum payment to the State by the company, of $375 million regardless of the price of copper. This would represent for the country more than 10 times the annual average received between 2019 and 2021.
