This humble corner of cyberspace is surprised that very few people are talking about the proposed hike in taxes for the mining industry in Mexico in 2020. Here’s a section from IKN454, out last Sunday, on the exchange in Mexico’s Senate last week:
The National Senate was the place
to be when ruling Morena Party Senator Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, the single most
powerful Congressional politician in Mexico’s mining sector and known to the
world as Napito, used his opportunity to address the floor by proposing a hike
in concession upkeep costs (23) and as part of the Congressional debate on the
2020 Federal budget, Napito said that he would present a law project to this
effect. In his words, “Why not raise
taxes on mining, on the rights for mining exploration, the taxes on mining
concessions? It’s shameful that when the 7.5% royalty was imposed, the companies
said that they would take their investments elsewhere. How can they take the land of Mexico, the national patrimony, or the
mountains or hills or mines?”
If you’ve spotted a populist tone in that,
you’re not the only one. As for the
reaction, the leader of the Morena party in Congress, Senator Ricardo Monreal,
said the following: “I say to Senator
Gómez Urrutia you are right, and it would be correct for us to prepare
initiatives that the parliamentary sub-committee will analyze seriously,
rationally with (governmental) backing. I believe it is a good proposal. You
know the mining sector very well, both you and your father have dedicated your
life to this and due to that, your intervention is both sensible and opportune.
I am in favour of it.” You heard it here first.