[miningmx.com] – THE African National Conference (ANC) may call for higher taxes on mining companies, said Bloomberg News citing Enoch Godongwana, head of the ANC’s economic transformation committee.
Godongwana told Bloomberg News that the country was walking a tightrope because it needed to take actions to avoid “uncontrollable revolution” amid increasingly restlessness among the ANC’s constituencies while pleasing the ratings agencies which could downgrade the country’s sovereign rating further.
“We’re kind of in a Catch-22 situation because there are people who listen to Moody’s and when we go out there and raise money, it becomes expensive,’ Godongwana told Bloomberg News.
“We may take a hit. We’ve got to make a choice, do we please Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s or do we deal with the kind of constituencies we’re facing. We’re walking that tightrope,’ Godongwana said.
He added that the ANC had not yet decided which minerals would attract higher taxes but he thought the gold sector would be exempt owing to the maturity of its mines.
The question of mining policy comes to a head at the ANC’s five-year elective conference in which it chooses its leadership, including its president, but also settles down to the policies adopted as its June conference.
