“Chamber takes positive look on SONA’s silence on mining” President Aquino was silent about mining during his State of the Nation Address (SONA) last Monday surprising the Chamber of Mines, an official said. “We were a bit surprised, given the interactions we have had with the Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC) since Executive Order (EO) 79 was issued in July last year,” said lawyer Ronald Recidoro, COMP vice president for legal and policy. Wednesday, 24 July 2013 – Malaya The MICC is a joint committee of the Economic Development Cluster and the Climate Change Cluster created under EO 79 tasked to formulate a new revenue sharing scheme between the government and mining companies. “To its credit, the MICC has been very active in pursuing its directives under EO 79 of reviewing the current fiscal regime for mining; streamlining the mining application process; developing an integrated map of areas open or closed to mining applications; and resolving the issues of the small-scale mining industry,” he added. Earlier, the MICC’s economic cluster was set to finalize its new revenue sharing scheme between 8 and 10 percent from the previous target of 7-10 percent so that the government could increase its cut from the gross revenues of mining projects. The Environment Cluster also finalized the areas that would be considered as no-go zones or areas where extractive activities would be limited or prohibited. However, the President failed to mention all this and more. “However, we take the-non mention of mining in the SONA as the President being satisfied with the way MICC is handling the issue of revenue sharing, and that he is leaving it up to Congress to come up with a bill that will rationalize the revenue sharing mechanism, while maintaining our country’s competitiveness as a destination for mining investments,” said Recidoro. Source: malaya.ph/index.php/business/business-news/36744-chamber-takes-positive-look-on-sonas-silence-on-mining
Posted on: Fri, 26 Jul 2013 19:20:58 +0000
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