K92 paid K67mil in tax last year: CEO

K92 MINING Ltd last year paid a corporate tax of approximately K67 million and expects to increase that amount to K85 million this year, chief executive officer John Lewins says.
Lewins assured Prime Minister James Marape and Mining Minister Johnson Tuke, in a meeting last month, that K92 remained committed to expanding its underground gold mine in Kainantu, Eastern Highlands.
“Other taxes paid included salary withholding tax (SWT) of K29 million in 2021, which is expected to increase to K38 million in 2022, as well as import duties and taxes,” he added.
“We also noted that royalties for 2021 totalled almost K12 million and are expected to increase to K15 million in 2022, while the Mineral Resources Authority levy was almost K3 million in 2021 and is expected to increase to K4 million this year.”
Lewins said other initiatives which K92 mining had undertaken involving landowners (LOs) and communities were more than K40 million in business contracts for LO joint venture companies in 2021 and plans to increase those contracts to over K50 million in 2022.
He added that overall tax from the mine to the Government included contractors who also paid corporate tax on their profits and SWT for their employees thereby increasing what the state took in.
Lewins said K92’s other contributions included infrastructure upgrades which the mine had undertaken of local roads, schools, clinics, water supply, agriculture and training projects and its scholarship programme which had over 50 participants.
“Employment numbers were also discussed, with numbers employed on site increasing from 100 when we took over the mine in 2015 to currently 1,250 (850 K92 employees and 400 contractors), and this is expected to increase to over 1,600 by the end of 2022 and up to 2,500 by 2025.”