WARSAW: Poland’s Finance Ministry could lower to 1 billion zlotys ($262.2 million) the mining tax paid almost solely by state-controlled copper producer KGHM, local radio station RMF FM said on Friday without naming its sources.
The levy introduced in 2012 weighs heavily on KGHM, which is Europe’s second biggest copper producer as well as the world’s largest silver miner but suffered a record loss last year on writedowns attributed to falling metals prices.
Poland’s state budget this year envisaged booking 1.5 billion zlotys from the levy, compared with the 1.4 billion paid last year by KGHM, which also operates in Germany, Canada, the United States and Chile.
According to RMF FM, the finance ministry is to present its new mining tax proposal next month. Finance Ministry spokesman Waldemar Grzegorczyk said that plans for the mining tax were still being worked on.
