Telesurtv
reported on a conference that happened in the Peruvian Congress earlier this
week about the paltry amount of taxes paid by multinational mining companies in
Peru. According to presenters at the conference, foreign mining companies make
$10 billion in profits each year, but pay just $143 million in taxes, or 1.55%
of their profits.
These presenters argued that your average Peruvian working
class citizen pays a higher percentage of their wage in income taxes than these
mining companies do, meaning that the mining industry cannot be seen as the
nation’s main economic engine. Newmont Mining Corporation was help up as an
example of a company that has cheated the Peruvian government out of tax
revenue.
In other mining-related news, La
Republica interviewed Eduardo Gudynas, a researcher with the Latin American
Center for Social Ecology. Gudynas refuted the idea of Peru as a mining state.
He called this label a “myth,” arguing that Peru’s dependence on exporting raw
commodities simply reflects the failure of the state to develop additional economic
drivers in the country.
In a long-awaited resolution
to the conflict between the Peruvian government and indigenous communities in
Loreto over the country’s Block 192 oil field, the government announced that
the confederation of 13 indigenous communities would annually receive 0.75% of
the value of the field’s production. According to Peruvian Deputy Minister for
Intercultural Affairs Patricia Balbuena, this guarantees the communities at
least $1.25 million per year.
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