Experts and activists in Peru complain that while mining corporations are cashing in on soaring metals prices, they continue to enjoy exemption from royalties and corporate taxes, if they reinvest their profits. Legal stability contracts that locked in the tax status of nearly two dozen mining companies were signed under the administration of Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) with the aim of promoting investment. One example of the losses that such contracts represent for government coffers was the 270 million dollars in taxes and royalties that Antamina SA – a joint venture between Swiss-British mining company Xstrata, Anglo-Australian BHP Billiton, Canada’s Teck Cominco Limited and Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation – will not have to pay this year.
See http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50184.