Backing away from campaign promises, the new Polish government said on December 2 that it will retain the country's tax on mineral resources. The news hit the share price of state-controlled copper and silver miner KGHM, the main payer of the levy.
In the run up to elections in October, officials from the Law and Justice (PiS) party hinted the levy - generally known as the "mining tax" and levvied on mining and oil and gas extraction but not coal - introduced by the former Civic Platform (PO) administation was damaging to industry and should be scrapped. However, faced with tricky budget demands to power its campaign spending pledges, PiS now looks to have dropped its objections to the revenue for the meantime.
Ahead of her appointment as prime minister, Beata Szydlo called the tax “unjust” and said KGHM should be allowed to raise investment instead. The metals and mining giant is expected to pay PLN1.5bn (€350mn) in mineral resources tax in 2015 and PLN1.1bn in 2016.
“Revenue from the tax on mineral resources are accounted for in next year’s budget,” a finance ministry spokeswoman told Puls Biznesu. KGHM shares had dropped 6% in afternoon trading on the news.
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