Ramaphosa: No intentions to make changes to SA's mining royalties structure

CAPE TOWN - President Cyril Ramaphosa said there were no intentions to make changes to the country's mining royalties structure. 

Answering questions in the National Assembly on Tuesday on the taxation of minerals, Ramaphosa said rather than hike taxes, the aim should be to extract more from the minerals before they leave the country.

He was asked the question by his party's chief whip, Mdumiseni Ntuli, who referred to a World Bank report that indicated that Africa only derived around 40% of the revenue it could be generating from its mineral resources.

But Ramaphosa said that mining companies paid 14% of all corporate taxes and contributed to the country in other ways.

He said that the critical minerals research strategy introduced for public comment last week focused on domestic mineral value addition.

"We do have a regime of taxation that is broad, that is quite diverse that enables us to extract as much taxation as we possibly can from various mineral activities and also ranging from commodity to commodity as well as whether value has been added, or there’s been refinement or there hasn’t been refinement. So that in itself represents a fairly robust and forward-looking taxation process."