Where US$312.0M in mining taxes end up isn’t known

Santo Domingo.- Dominican Republic on Tues. presented its second report “Initiative for Transparency in Extractive Industries (EITI)” which reveals that the Government raised RD$15.6 billion (US$312.0 million) in taxes from mining.

Energy and Mines minister Antonio Isa Conde, said 2019 will be important since according to the report the country will have its first validation of the mining transparency protocol, which will measure the level of progress achieved.

“Transparency today is not an optional commitment, but a duty towards citizenship and, as such, must be part of our philosophy of life and public management, not only for government actors, but also for companies,” Isa told representatives from international organizations, consultants, civil society and the extractive sector.

He said 27,230 tons of ferronickel, 1,185,707 troy ounces of gold were produced in the country in 2016; 3,599,853 troy ounces of silver and 9,177 tons of copper.

The sector’s contribution to GDP was 2% that year, or RD$66.8 billion.

Isa added that mining exports accounted for 41.9% of the national total while the flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) from mining reached US$485.7 million, or 20.2% of the total FDI that year.

But Maritza Ruiz, Observatory and Civil Society representative said: “We do not know how RD$15.6 billion are distributed in the Dominican Republic that were paid for taxes, fees, consideration; how the Dominican government uses them.”